Love is only a feeling
by Brunaje
Summary: Lucas' life turns upside down as his 18 years old daughter goes to Tree Hill looking for him and the answers Brooke didn't gave her.
1. Preface

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, just the storyline

**Preface**

My dream had always been to do a world trip. I could remember myself and Alex lying on the floor reading atlas and looking for places to go, asking our parents for advice or just taking notes of magazines, documentaries and even news. But now that doesn't matter. My daddy isn't my father and, although, I love him to death I want to know my real father and who is he and why he is not with us. I don't understand why my mom has lied to me, Brooke Davis is not a woman that lies often, and she is actually the sweetest person I have ever known, so I can't help but wonder about that. But I need the truth, I want the truth and since my mom isn't into telling me I asked my dad. He told me he knew the whole story because my mom had told him after I was born but that it wasn't his part to tell me. I understood, I don't know why though. But, as I was opening the door of his office he told me: '_All I can tell you is his name: Lucas Scott. You will have find out the rest. I'm sorry, my little clover. I wish I could tell you more but you know your mother would kill me if I do that'_ Soon I was laughing on his arms. Dad always understood me, he was always kind and loving and I knew this was hard to him, even if he didn't admit it, so I hugged him harder. I was determined to find out everything about mom and Lucas Scott's relationship, about him and about his absence. As soon as I arrived home I googled his name and I learnt that Lucas Scott was still living in Tree Hill and that he was a writer. The rest was a piece of cake, I convinced both Alex and my brother Declan to do a road trip instead of the world one, so I wrote a note to our parents telling them where we were going and why. And that Sunday I get on Dec's Chevrolet Camaro Convertible with Alex and my brother by my side destination North Carolina.

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**Hi! First of all I want to apologize for any mistake or misspelling. English is not my mother language and I do this trying to improve it. Second, do you think I should continue? Do you like it? Thirdly, I warn you that this is not a Brucas story although I do love them, this is their daughter's story not their reconciliation one and that I should really change my mind to make it a Brucas. So… press review and let me know what you think. **


	2. The life I chose

**The life I chose**

The way back home was, as always, the hardest part of the day. Who would like to go home having a home like his? He scolded himself. He_ had_ to do this because of Michael. His son deserved a good place to live and a family. He parked the car outside the house whose yellow paint was peeling off, he made a mental note: paint the house during the summer. As he walked along the path he heard her yelling. Again.

-I just asked you a favor Michael!

-But … -Michael voice was full of frustration as he tried to be heard.

-No, no buts. It was just picking up some… stuff

-Stuff? Now that's what you call it?- Asked his son mocking

The next happened really fast: she raised her hand, his son turned as if trying to soften the knock and Lucas opened quickly the door and grabbed her.

-Peyton! – His voice was angry and tired; he had done this to many times- What the hell is going on? Michael?- He asked knowing that his was likely the more reliable and true version.

-Peyton wanted… - He smiled but was soon interrupted

-Don't call me Peyton. I'm your fucking mother!

-Ok, my _mother_ wanted me to skip English and go to pick up some _stuff_.

-What exactly? - Asked Lucas. She couldn't be using their son, could she?

-Some stuff… to paint. I still have to finish my latest painting and I have been busy with music so… I needed help- She was rambling and saw on his eyes that he didn't believe her.

-Leave her alone! I think she's old enough to do what she wants! - A strong voice shouted from the kitchen.

-Thanks, Kim! It's good to hear that someone in this fucking house believes in me! - Peyton shouted back to her daughter.

-This is not of your business, Kim! - Lucas shouted to his step-daughter, she was just like her mother, she didn't like and to be sincere he didn't like her either.

Peyton gave them a nasty look before heading to the kitchen, so father and son were left alone.

-Do you want to go for a walk? - Michael just nodded as he grabbed the house keys.

The warm July breeze made the walk nicer. Either of them needed to talk, either of them wanted to do it. Michael was afraid of blaming his father for not being brave enough to leave her and Lucas was afraid of answering the questions that his son could ask. So they walked in silence. Lucas knew someday he was going to have to explain too many things to his son, things Michael didn't understand and things Michael didn't knew and he was afraid of that moment. His thoughts quickly lead him to Brooke, his cheery beautiful girlfriend back in High School. Things would have been different if he had chosen differently but he had chosen this and now he had to carry consequences. Michael was the innocent victim of all this messed up situation and his duty was to protect him, to give him a family and a future. Brooke had gotten the family she wanted, he knew that, and she was surely an amazing mother, she could enlighten the dark with her words, with her smile. And suddenly he could see it: all them together playing on the beach, Brooke chasing them with a water gun on her hands, she was smiling as always but the unusual was that he was smiling too. He shocked his head, this was insane! He looked at his boy: blond with blue eyes, skinny and tall and he wondered about things that were forbidden to him to think about. Things that hurt to much to think about and soon he found himself running to the Rivercourt with his soon following him close, running away from his past, running away from his mistakes. As they arrived to the court, they heard Nathan shouting, Haley cheering and the kids jumping at the same time that Jamie scored and for once Lucas envied his brother and his luck and he wondered how different things would have been if he hadn't reacted so late.

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A**gain I apologize for any mistake or misspelling I could have done while writing. I thought that it could be interesting to have the story told by two people: Allie with her teen vision in an inner perspective and Lucas because he has a LOT of things to say but he is so… uncommunicative and introvert that I'm going to use an external perspective to explain his side of the story at least until he is free from his burdens. You may think that there is a huge difference between First and Second chapter but you have to take into account that even if it is the same story Allie and Lucas' perspectives are not. So I hope you like it and… leave reviews **

**soapfan2006- Thanks a lot for you review, I hope you find this chapter interesting.**

**Kajal- Hi! Thanks for the encouragement! Yes, I wish I could made longest chapters but I'm not confident enough yet lol sorry! You know, my English teacher got me used to write short stories with short phrases because she said this way I was less likely to make mistakes, but they are going to grow longer (I hope) as I start to gain confidence writing in English. Oh! And as you can see Lucas is married to Peyton... but not happily ;) I'm sorry I didn't make Michael dreary though lol but he is a character I love. Hope you like this.**

**TeamSophia- Hi! Thanks for the review. I'm in the same phase as you! I can understand how he can be so close-minded! Sometimes I even think he doesn't deserve her at all lol Don't worry, Brooke is my favourite character so I'm not going to hurt her but she has to live some hard situations yet as you can imaging having her daughter looking for Lucas… can you imagine how Peyton is going to react when she knows? But she's happy, she has a family like Lucas said and she can't complain about her life xD And, no… Allie's not crazy enough yet to love Peyton… I'm not even sure if she's gonna love Lucas :S**


	3. Meeting Michael

**Meeting Michael**

The closer we get to our destination the more anxious and scared I was. By the time we arrived to Washington I already wanted to go back to my safe New York City. But I couldn't, not now. I looked to my right and I saw Alex dozing and I couldn't help but smile and cuddle closer into his arms.

"Every time you say you both are just friends I believe you less" Declan's sleepy voice came from the front seat.

"That's because you are all dirty minded" I replied to him with a smile that turned into guffaws as Alex snored.

"Sleep, Allie. I will wake you up as soon as we arrive to Rocky Mount, ok?" I didn't need him to repeat that, I was so tired that I would have fallen asleep anyway. I didn't heard Dec waking me up either Alex carrying me into a room and I slept leaving all my worries behind.

When I woke up it was lunch time already so I took a quick shower and went to find my brother and my best friend. I found them in the café, speaking on the phone.

"Hi" My brother greeted me as I hugged him. "I was talking to mom, she's pretty worried, you know" The guilt hit me hard. I loved my mom but I prevent the rising distrust and rage I felt now. She had lied to me by years. 18 years. And I wondered if she had lied about anything else. It killed me to feel this about my own mom but this was not just anything. I was scared of carry this on and discover that my mom has lied about more things that she had told me but overall I was worried about what I was going to find there so without a word I left the café and sat on stairs.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked me as he seated by my side, he wasn't smiling "I'm concerned about you, today you don't seem yourself"

"I am scared" I whispered but then he started to laugh "Why the hell are you laughing?"

"I'm sorry! It's just so funny, you are scared. You: Allie fearless. That's new!" I rolled my eyes and smiled but I turned my head to watch at the noisy road. "You have always been so brave, that it's hard to imagine you scared about something you don't even know" He added "Do you remember when my mother wanted me to met Robert?" I just nodded so he went on "She had been depressed since she and Dad divorced but when she met him she smiled again and she seemed to be happy. I was scared" and in a solemn tone that made me laugh he said "Yeah, even if it's impossible to imagine… I was scared"

"It's not hard to imagine! I had to go with you to the supper!"

"Shit! This wasn't the example I needed" I looked at him inquisitively "I wanted to give you an example about my braveness and why you shouldn't be scared but you ruined it" This boy was insane! But he could always make me laugh.

"I'm scared about pretty much everything: Mom's lies, people in Tree Hill, Lucas' reaction. God! Can you imagine it? 'Hi! I'm Allie Bentley, Brooke Davis' daughter and I am looking for you because I she recently confessed you're my father!' Priceless!" I gasped and flipped my hair. He just hugged me.

"In other words, you are scared that he doesn't like you" He said simply and I looked at him surprised "What? You have been my best friend for like… thirteen years. That gives me the capacity of read between lines. You're amazing, Allie. I saw the kid and the teen and I'm seeing now the woman and I'm not good with words so all I'm going to tell you is that if he isn't able to see how extraordinary you are… he is the one that is going to regret. I admire you, for doing this" Stupid boy! I was almost crying, so I hugged him harder to suppress that feeling in my chest.

Declan came from behind and I could see him smiling before he said "Ok, if you are done with you _friendly_ cuddles, we can go now and be in Tree Hill in about three hours" It was now or never, so I moved away from Alex and headed to the car. The rest of the trip was calmed, it was Alex turn to drive so Declan and I just seated behind teasing each other and telling Alex the newest silly things our youngest brothers have done. It was a nice way to spent the time and low the tension. Alex even had to stop in a ditch when we told him that Declan, Brayden and I have convinced 10 year old Kai that an orgy was a pyjama party and Mom and Dad's faces when he asked permission to go to an orgy with his friends. Thinking about my brothers made me wonder about Lucas Scott, did he have another child? Maybe he had a son, another brother to me or a girl… a sister. I have always wanted a sister and every time mom was pregnant I would ask for one but she never came. I was surrounded by boys but I didn't complain either. And easy like that I found myself excited about meeting the Scott family.

As my brother predicted, three hours later we were seeing the 'Welcome to Tree Hill, NC' sign. My heart started to run and I found myself looking for Dec's hand like when we were kids and I was scared of storms, he squeezed my hand and smiled encouragingly. We parked the car somewhere near the Townhall and wandered aimlessly. Soon, Alex run into an old dark haired man and as we helped him to get up he looked at me with the surprise wrote on his face and asked me "What are you doing here?" But I was frozen, he was familiar but I didn't remember to have seen him and before I could ask him his name he was gone.

"Mom was right, people here is somewhat weird" Declan said.

"Are you ok?" Alex asked me looking me as if I was going to have an attack or something "You are pale" Declan laughed and so did him "I mean paler"

"I'm ok. Dec, do you remember that man? I think I have seen him before but I don't remember where or when" He looked at me and unlike I thought he would do he said

"Yes, I remember his piercing blue eyes. He scared me, I guess we saw him when we were younger" I nodded and started to walk again "So, Allie, what are we going to do? Are we just going to walk around until we see a man with a neon sign saying 'I'm Lucas Scott' or what?" I rolled my eyes and flipped my hair.

"I don't know, my plan was just to come" I shrugged, I usually planned our activities, pranks and all but this time I didn't.

"It's 5pm. I think the best we can do it's find a hotel and relax. Tomorrow we can search on the phone list or internet" I looked at Alex in surprise "What? I think… from time to time" I smiled and gave him a pat on his back

"That's my boy!" We started to laugh.

"Look! There is a court there. What do you say Kushner? Wanna play?" Declan being the captain of high school basketball team never missed the opportunity to play. Alex just smiled and soon we were heading to the court. When we arrived we saw that there were some kids there, a girl and three boys. They looked at us carefully and sudden all the looks were on me again. Uncomfortable with the situation I moved back and took Alex's hand.

"Hi, who are you? I have never seen you here before" Asked a girl that had to be about my age but had dark hair and brown eyes.

"Uh, Hi. My name is Declan, this is my sister Allie and our friend Alex" My brother voice was shaking and I wondered why "we are just passing through the town, we are looking for someone"

"My name is Jen and these are my brothers Jamie and Ethan" She pointed to an older guy holding a ball and to a young kid who seemed to be the only one that didn't notice the tension "and my cousin Michael" This boy was younger than me but not too much but what was scary about him was how alike we were. I glanced at Declan and I saw him looking at the boy with a painful look. The boy looked at me trying to hide his confusion and when he spoke he did it with a strong voice that made him look older

"Who are you looking for?"

"Lucas Scott" I said sounding less confident that I had intended. The strange was what came after that: the girl turned to look at Jamie and he gave her a warning look and then he excused the saying it was too late and Ethan had to go to eat and the blond boy, Michael, didn't take his eyes off me and asked us where we were staying

"At the Carrington" Alex replied reluctant as the boy without saying another word turned back and headed to an old car as he called someone with his cell.

"This place is surely weird" Declan said with a mock "Everybody seems to know you or something. And that boy…"

"I think he was your brother… half-brother" Alex said looking at me worried I just shrugged. I wasn't sure I wanted to know anything else.

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**Ok, pretty fast, uh? This is a bit longer thatn the other chapters and I hope to keep increasing. To TeamSophia, my mother tongue is Spanish although I also speak Catalan (as you can already imagine I'm from Spain, from Catalonia). I was thinking about your idea of include a Brooke's POV chapter and I may do it. I liked it. Now a challenge: give me five or six reviews and I upload next chapter within the weekend. I hope you like it!**


	4. Facing the truth

**Facing the truth**

Lucas Scott woke up with a huge headache that morning. He looked at his right side and sighted, not that he was expecting her to be there but… He put aside these thoughts and went downstairs. Both Peyton and Kim were already gone and he was somewhat grateful of that. When he married Peyton he had expected to have a family, a real one like the one he had with his mom and Keith but soon he realized that his dreams were never linked to Peyton. He wanted to be a writer and to have a family and she… she just wanted her music and her painting. He could remember when a long time ago he would think they were soul mates just because both were lonely artists, it took him a while to realize that love is not joining two people that are alike but two that are different so they make a whole. His thoughts were interrupted when Michael got into the kitchen.

"Hi Dad" They boy greeted and looking around he added "Are they gone again?"

"Yes, yes they are. I guess they are going to come back in a couple days. You know your mom is working hard, right?" The boy just rolled his eyes "You shouldn't be so harsh"

"You should be so pleasant. She does with you what she wants"

"She's your mother" Lucas said as if that fact could fix anything.

"That's your excuse to defend whatever she does! Being my mother doesn't make her a saint. I'm not stupid, you know? I know you you're with her because you want me to have a family but have you never thought that I would be better without her?" The boy spoke with a rough tone and his words hit Lucas hard, of course he had thought that but his ideals were too powerful to betray them. And he regretted that. He watched Michael as he ate and he hoped his son would be better than him, stronger, clever. "I'm sorry about that, Dad, but we both know that you barely stand her and the reasons you give me sounds more unfounded every time you say them. I mean it's good to have ideals and all that but you should try to be happy, I would appreciate that much more than having a family" Michael suddenly looked at his father "Maybe you should find that lady mom always talks about when you fight, you know, that one she uses to reproach you that you don't love her" His smirk fell as he watched his father went pale "Are you ok?" Lucas just nodded and his not-very-convinced son left the house "Ok, I'm going to Naley's. Bye" As soon as Michael closed the door, Lucas collapsed on a chair. His face was very pale and his eyes closed. When they fought Peyton would always bring up Brooke as if she was the one to blame for all their problems even though she knew he hadn't seen her in thirteen years. He learned to not defend Brooke hoping that that would be a signal to Peyton to stop blaming her but Peyton didn't realize; after all she never cared about anything else that wasn't herself and her problems. Michael had never asked about who Brooke was and Lucas thought that Jamie had something to do with that. His godson was a die-hard fan of Brooke and Lucas knew that he hadn't seen her in years but they were in contact and Brooke never forget his birthday, Christmas, graduation…he wondered about how much Jamie knew. He remembered how Jamie had cried for weeks after Brooke had left and how guilty he had felt. He had made a drunken mistake that had broken at least five hearts: Brooke's, Jamie's, Haley's, Nathan's and his own. He wasn't sure if he had to add her to the list. Haley hadn't talked to him in six months because she blamed him for Jamie's sadness and for having lost her friend and Nathan, well, he talked to him but Lucas could feel the reject and he understood it. Jaime and Haley eventually forgave him but Nathan didn't and he couldn't blame him because he was there that evening in the bookstore when Lucas could have done something… and did nothing.

Slowly, Lucas got up and went upstairs to his study where he wrote books that no one read. He searched in the bookcase for William Blake's Auguries of Innocence and when he found it, he took the little wooden box hid behind the book. Opening that box was like opening Pandora's Box of memories to Lucas but sometimes he really enjoyed doing it, that little box hide his darker secrets, hopes and dreams. Everything was there: the read feather of Brooke's devil costume, photographs of the days they were a happy couple before Peyton decided she needed him more than Brooke, some letters he never had the braveness to send and an old crumpled piece of paper, he took the latter. It was a magazine cutting, a paparazzo's photograph at whose footnote it could be read _Brooke Davis, her husband and their kids enjoying at Central Park_. He watched the photograph: Brooke sitting on the ground laughing with a dark haired baby on her lap and a dimpled kid that probably was two on her right side, closer to the camera were a dark haired man playing soccer with two boys while a girl, a very blonde girl, watched them leaning on her mother's back (n/a: she was hugging her by behind). Lucas closed his eyes and raised his head and quickly he got up and put everything away.

The morning at the bookstore passed slowly, Lucas just sold a couple books. He wondered why people didn't like to read anymore. He liked to read and he liked to write, he wrote about life and love but he mostly wrote about hope. He used his books as an escape of his own life so they all had happy endings and when people asked him if he was inspired by his day by day he would just say he was inspired by his night by night. His dreams, because that was all he had now and he could always be free of Peyton's accusations there. It wasn't that he had wrote a lot of books, just seven in total but his muse was gone and now Lindsay knew that put pressure on him was worthless. He smiled as he remembered his editor, he had thought he had lost her after they failed attempt to marry but he was wrong, they worked things out and now they were friends, not the bests but they still talked from time to time. He was happy for her because she had found someone and she lived happily now, in New York, with his husband and their daughter. Suddenly, the ring sounded making him jump.

"Hi, Luke!" his workmate said.

"You scared me, redhead! You almost kill me!" He laughed. June was a 32 year old woman that worked in the bookshop in the afternoon when he went to Tree Hill High to coach the basketball team. Lucas loved to talk to her because she always listened and never judged him and he also loved her stories. She was a free spirit; she had dropped out of College and had travelled for years working in the places she was to go to another. "Have you eaten?"

"No, not yet"

"Then, let's go" He grabbed her and closed the door behind them. "How was your date with… uh, Marcus?" He asked smiling. She had dated more men that all the girls he knew together but she always found some little detail that made them go to the 'Not Suitable' group

"Oh, it was cool but I don't think we have a future together" She pouted as he wondered what had happened this time.

"Why not? He seemed nice"

"He ordered fettuccine!" She said as if that was the worse thing someone could do.

"And the problem is…" He never understood her; she had a really strange logic.

"I ordered that too which means that we have the same taste"

"And that is bad?" She nodded "So if he had ordered shrimps you wouldn't have dumped him?"

"No" She replied simply.

"Why? I still don't understand it"

"It isn't complicated. To make things work you need to find your opposite. That's the grace. It would be deadly boring otherwise" She said as if he was stupid. He thought about him and Peyton. Fettuccine and Fettuccine. He thought about him and Brooke. Fettuccine and Shrimps. He smiled.

"You're right, but things aren't that easy in the real world"

After lunch he went directly to Tree Hill High School, the basketball team was already waiting for him in the gym. This was the part of the day he liked the most, the team was good and although classes had been over for a week he liked to reunite the team and practice, he wanted them in good shape in September. Since the HCM prevented him from playing when he was seventeen, coaching was the place he felt he belonged: in a court, with a ball in his hands. He ordered them to run while he checked last practice's notes. Michael was on the team too, he was good but not the best. Lucas didn't care about that because if he had obliged him to play and improve he would have felt like Dan and he hoped he was a better father than his own, at _least_ to his son. The practice lasted an hour and a half and as soon as it ended, Lucas and his son headed back to the bookshop.

"Hi! Don't tell me you forget something?" June laughed as she kissed Michael.

"He did! Again! Can you believe it? He's getting really old" Both his son and his friend started laughing.

"How's your mother? Lucas didn't tell me anything" asked June.

"Oh, she's gone. She had to do something somewhere, you know… as always" She nodded and Michael broke the uncomfortable silence with another question "Are you going somewhere this summer?" Lucas wasn't the only one that loved June's stories, Michael did that too. He was a shy boy but when they had dinner at June's house (when Peyton was away, of course) he wouldn't stop making questions and June didn't mind to explain to him her adventures in Tunisia or in Papua or how was to visit the Uffizi's Gallery.

"I don't know. I'm going to wait a while. If things get interesting here I'm staying"

"This is Tree Hill" Michael said with a duh-tone and June just laughed." Things are always interesting here"

"Ok, I got it. It is just a book to Ethan. See you tomorrow, June"

"Yeah, see ya boss!" She replied mocking "See you soon, Mike"

Michael was an anxious to arrive to Naley's place. He loved being there and Lucas thought it was because at home he was by his own and here he had his cousins. Kimberly wasn't a social girl so either she was working, with Peyton or shut up in her room and Michael and she didn't get along, actually. As soon as he parked, Jen came out smiling.

"Hey Uncle Luke" He hugged her "Mike" He just nodded

Jen was eighteen years old and she looked like Nathan but with Haley's dark eyes. She was the perfect combination of his parents and Lucas loved her dearly. When they got into the house, they saw that Haley was still cooking and Nathan was playing with Jamie and Ethan.

"Hey, Ethan!" Lucas called him and the boy, the male version of her mother, approached "Here" He handed him the book.

"Thanks Uncle Luke" Said the eight year old.

"Hey Luke" His brother gave him a hug "I hope you don't mind but Jamie invited Dan" Lucas pulled a face but didn't say anything, Jamie loved Dan as the others kids did and since he hadn't seen him since he came back from California in Easter, he thought it was fair. Jamie looked at him with a thankful look. Lucas tried to find the little boy in his nephew's face but all he could see was a 24 year old man. Jamie still had his light blue eyes but his hair had darkened and now it was almost as black as Nathan's.

"Glad to see you home" He said as he hugged him.

"Thanks Uncle Luke. I'm staying till middle August, then I have to go back to Los Angeles but I may leave soon I've got a quite interesting proposal this summer" Jamie smirked. He knew the boy was in L.A. pursuing his dream so Lucas just smiled as he started talking about how amazing his work was. Half an hour later Dan arrived.

"Hi family" He said with a solemn tone smirking "I'm sorry I'm late but I run into someone really interesting in my way here"

The kids and Jamie gave him a hug and they sat at the table. Lucas quickly got uncomfortable because Dan wouldn't take his eyes off him so he volunteered to wash the dishes but Dan followed him.

"So, son, how is your life going?"

"Good" he answered dryly but his father continued

"Great! You should enjoy that calmness because I predict a storm coming to you" Lucas looked at him.

"What are you talking about?"

"You have done things. And you know that sometimes our _past come back_ to us_ looking for answers_" His father words gave him goose pimples "If I were you I would be looking for good excuses" Said that he left, leaving Lucas frozen.

"Hey, what happens?" Asked Nathan as he entered into the kitchen "Dan left laughing as a maniac"

"He just… I don't know, he told me something about beware because someone of my past was looking for me" Nathan gave him an strange look

"Brooke?" Lucas heart started to race.

"I don't think so; she told me quite clearly she didn't want to see me ever again"

"I know but maybe the…"

"Hey, the kids left. Jamie took them to the Rivercourt" Haley announced "Do I interrupt something?" She asked noticing how pale Lucas was and the worrying look on Nathan's face.

"No" Nathan smiled "Everything is ok. Let's go to the porch"

The three of them sat in silence on the stairs, a habit they had gotten with the years. Haley was the one that broke the silence.

"So, how is the bookshop?"

"It's good. We don't sell many books but it's enough to live and to feel useful" He smiled "June thinks that we have to open to the new trends"

"She may be right, you live in the past" She added

"I would say he lives _running away_ from the past" Nathan said, Haley looked at him urging him to continue but the look Lucas throw him made him swallow his words. Seeing that he didn't say anything else Haley talked

"Talking about past… Brooke invited Jamie to spend some time with her and her family this summer" Lucas heart started to race again.

"How come that I didn't knew it?" Asked Nathan hurt.

"He told me this morning, you were at work. She sent him an e-mail. I think he said they were going to Ireland or France or both… I don't remember"

"Is he going?" Asked Lucas with a voice that didn't seem his.

"Yes, I think so. He's really excited. You know that they have been talking for years" Haley was mad Brooke didn't call her or wrote her but she forgot that as soon as she remembered that Brooke never forget about his son and always was there for him, even if it was via e-mail "He want to meet her husband, he says Brooke has told him he feels passion for cars and speed, and her kids. She has a lot of boys but only a girl!" Nathan and Lucas shared a look that lasted too much in his opinion and Lucas suddenly found that the floor was very interesting. "Is anything wrong, Lucas?

"No, no I just…" He didn't know what to tell her

"I'm sorry. I know you don't like to talk about Brooke but Jamie was so excited! He loves her and admires her. She's great and I wish I talked to her too" Her voice cracked and Nathan hugged her as he throw Lucas look that made him feel like the worse person in the world. And they sat there in silence until it got dark.

Lucas jumped when his cell phone started to ring. Michael was calling him and he worried, why would he be calling him? So he answered but nothing in the world would have prepared him to what he heard.

"Hi, Mich…" He started but his son cut him with the harshest tone he has ever heard

"Are you still at Uncle Nate's?"

"Yes, but…"

"Don't go anyway. We need to talk. You owe me a lot of fucking explanations!" and he cut off. Lucas mind started to work so quickly that he felt dizzy. What could have happened? What did Michael knew? Had this something to do with his father's advice?

"Luke, are you ok? You look as if you had seen a ghost?" Haley asked and he could just nod. Nathan got up and excused himself.

Jamie arrived soon accompanied by Jen and Ethan. They just sat in front of the adults and sent Ethan to wash his hands.

"Do you have _anything_ to tell us Uncle Luke?" Asked Jen looking directly at him.

"Jen! Stop!" Jamie yelled as Nathan came back from the kitchen bringing water glasses but Lucas couldn't calm down, something was going on and he feared he knew what it was. He could felt everyone eyes on him and when he sighted Michael in the distance he got even more nervous. His soon started running towards him.

"You're an ass!" The boy yelled to his father "A fucking liar!"

"Michael, don't talk…" Haley started but Michael interrupted her.

"Listen to what I have to say because, if you don't know it, you are going to want to kill him when you know" and he turned back to his father "Do you have _anything_ to tell me?" He asked with a voice so nice yet so dangerous that Lucas remember his own father.

"About what?"

"Don't play the dumb with me! I'm not a kid and I'm not stupid!" Michael moved back as if his father was the worse plague "I have spent years feeling sorry for you, hating mom! I trusted you and you have lied to me! You're not better than she is!"

"Michael I swear I don't know what are you talking about" Lucas asked calmly although he could feel his heart racing fast. Haley looked at him worried and he looked at Nathan and could read in his brother's eyes: _it's time_. No, no! Not yet!

"I'm talking about you! You know who I met at the Rivercourt ten minutes ago?" Lucas shocked his head

"A _girl._ A girl that was looking for you"

"Why she was looking for me?" _Your past come back looking for answers_, his father's voice resounded on his ears.

"Why would a girl that looks just like you, just like me… be looking for you, _Dad_?" He looked at his son and the rage he saw in his eyes made him feel a sharp pain in his heart. "Why you didn't tell me you had a daughter, Dad?" Asked Michael in a whisper and the last thing he saw was the disappointment and surprise in Jamie's eyes and the last thing he heard was Haley's glass shattering as it hit the ground. After that… everything went black.

* * *

**This is the longest I have ever written in English lol (Yeah, I haven't written a lot haha, just school compositions!) So I apologize for any mistake or misspelling. I hope to have the new chapter on Monday. Answering ****naleyalways4eva****'s question Declan is just Allie's step brother, we will know more about Brooke's family soon : ) People, leave reviews please, because I want to know how I am doing and if you like the story so far. Thanks to everyone and have a nice weekend! **


	5. A day of conversations

**A day of conversations  
**

As we went back to the hotel I couldn't help but wonder about what Alex has said. Was Michael my brother? Why he had left? Why had the others left? Suddenly it hit me. Jamie. Mom always talked about a godson we had never met that was _by chance_ named Jamie. I stopped as tear started running down my cheeks. How many more secrets could this little town hide?

"Hey, are you ok?" I heard Declan's voice as if he was far and I only could shake my head. In a second he had wrapped his arms around me. "Everything is going to be alright. Eventually. But we can always go back to New York if that is what you want…"

"No, if I go back I don't think I could come again" I tried to smile at him and Alex who was looking at me somewhat scared. "Don't worry, boy, I'm done crying" I told him smiling. He opened his mouth to tell me something but he closed it when I signalled him to stop as my cell phone started to vibrate inside my pocket. When I picked it up and read "_Dad calling_" I wondered if I should talk or not and after a seconds I pressed '_yes_'

"Hi, Dad" I said trying to sound casual although judging by his tone I failed.

"Hi, honey. How are you doing? We have been waiting for you to call us all day…" Uh, how could I tell him that I had totally forgotten about that?

"We are fine. I'm sorry about that I had been just… busy, you know"

"Ok. Now, tell me what's wrong" He said and I didn't need to see him to know he was smiling. "I don't need to see you to know it" Now it was my turn to smile. "Did you find him?"

"No, not him at least"

"Explain me that"

"Do you have time, Dad?"

"Yes, no surgeries and no visits until the end of my shift but you know that I can have an emergency case anytime"

"Ok, wait a minute" I flipped my hair as we sat on a bench. I loved him and I understood that he loved medicine because I did it too but, just like Mom, I felt sometimes that he rather being in the hospital that at home. That was the main cause of their almost divorce some years ago. Dad and Mom had promised to be at home as much as their jobs let them but unfortunately for me and my brothers that wasn't much, after all she runs a Company and he is a surgeon. Strange couple I told myself. "I have met a boy named Michael" I stopped but he didn't say anything so I continued "I think he's Lucas Scott's son" I added in a whisper.

"What makes you think so?" He asked confused. "Don't take me wrong, honey, but you have been there for hours" I was about to answer him but I felt someone tapping my right arm. I turned and I saw Alex signalling a computer shop and Declan was already on his way there. Boys!

"He looks just like me plus he has a cousin named Jamie. Isn't that the name of Mom's godson?"

"Yes, little Jamie Scott"

"Believe me Dad, he is definitely not little" We laughed.

"And are you going to find him? That Michael boy…"

"I don't know, as soon as I said we were looking for Lucas Scott all them were gone. I don't know what to think. I don't know if I even want to think…"

"Oh, come on, honey! Do you know what I think you should do?"

"Find the boy?" I asked

"No. Well, maybe. But you should call your mom" I gasped and flipped my hair "She's worried sick and I'm sure that if you ask her to she would get on the first plane to Tree Hill. Talk to her" I was on the verge of tears again.

"I don't want to talk to her. I'm angry to her, Daddy. I don't want to tell Mom something I know it is going to hurt her and I'm going to regret"

"You're a great kid" I cleared my throat and I could hear Dad laughing "Ok, honey. You're a great _almost_ adult. You will know what to do. I trust you and so does Brooke. I'm proud of you, you know. Not matter what happens you will always be my child"

"Dad! You're making me cry!" I said between sobs "I love you too and Mom" I omitted any comment about Lucas Scott because at this point I wasn't sure of anything "Any chance you can come?" I heard him gasp.

"It's July, honey. Half of the staff is on vacation it would be hard to change shifts" I nodded as if he could see me "But I'm going to try, ok? If you need…" I heard a door open and someone calling Dr. Bentley. I gasped. "Honey, I'm sorry I…"

"Go, Dad. It's ok" I smiled "I love you"

"I love you too. Call your Mom" I laughed but I didn't say anything.

* * *

That night it took me hours to fell asleep so I just stayed awake wondering about anything that came to my mind. At 6am I was already dressed and, since both Dec and Alex were sleeping, I decided to go and explore the city. I walked for a while only accompanied by my iPod until I found a nice café. It was retro and very small. I was about to left the place when two things stopped me: my stomach growled asking for food and I saw the man Alex had run into the day before. He was staring at me and suddenly he moved his hand telling me to go seat with him. I hesitated but my curiosity won, so I sat in front of him.

"Who are you?" I asked him directly.

"Dan Scott" He replied smirking as I looked at him surprised.

"You are Lucas Scott's father and Michael's grandfather I guess…" I added

"And yours" His piercing look was stuck on me waiting for a reaction but all I could say was…

"Oh" I was trying to regain my voice when I realized something "How do you know who I am?"

"I have been keeping an eye on you since you were born" I was puzzled. "Allegra Bentley, Allie for short, born in New York. Your birthday is April 9th. You live in Manhattan and you just graduated from some preppy private school. You plan to study Medicine someday. Your hobbies are reading and listening to music. You have a step brother and four half brothers (plus Michael). You…"

"That's enough!" I was terrified, my grandfather was a stalker! "You have been stalking me!"

"No, I have been making sure you're ok. There is a _slight_ difference" He smiled mischievously.

"Why do you care about me?"

"It's obvious, my darling, you are my granddaughter. I had to make sure your mother and that doctor took care of you" I just looked at him trying to not show any feeling. I guess he assumed I was asking for a more credible explanation because he continued after a silent while "Listen I don't know if your mother has told you anything about me…"

"I guess you're her godson's grandfather, the one that killed his own brother" I said harshly. I was tired of people treating me like glass as if I couldn't stand the truth.

"Yes" He said looking at the table "I have been trying to gain my family back, my sons, but they don't want to hear about me. My grandkids, luckily to me, are different. They trust me and I hope love me" He stopped when the waitress came.

"Do you want anything?" She asked me.

"I, uh… a coffee" I said the first thing that came to my mind.

"Do you need anything else, Dan?"

"Yes, brownies for me and my granddaughter" I looked at him in surprise. What was this man playing at? "Do you like them, right?" I nodded as I saw the surprised waitress went away.

"As I was telling you, I have spent the last twenty years trying to make amends for all the harm I caused to our family"

"Yours" I said before I realized what I was doing.

"What?" He asked confused

"It's _your_ family, not mine." I said simply and Dan smiled.

"I can't blame you for not considering yourself a Scott. This family is complicated and you don't know us. But keep in mind, darling, that you _are _a Scott"

"So… I am just one of your ways to mend mistakes?" I preferred to ignore his comment about being a Scott. I didn't know why but that hurt me, I felt used but I didn't understand why I cared.

"Something like that. Lucas made a mistake, actually he made the same mistake I did, so I…" I interrupted him

"So you thought that looking after me was going to erase the fact that you abandoned him?" I felt used.

"Karen had Keith but your mother had no one" He said simply.

"She had my Dad" I said defensively

"She didn't know him when she left Tree Hill" He stated

"Does she know…?"I asked

"No. I would just watch at you in the park or when they went to pick you up at school. I hid" And it suddenly hit me

"Your face rang a bell to me and my brother…"

"Yes, maybe you remember me from the park. I talked to you once. You were playing with a ball with two kids, one older and another younger… I guess they were your brothers"

"Declan and Brayden" I said smiling and he just shrugged

"The older one shoot the ball hard and it fell on the sidewalk, very near to the road and you came running to get it." The waitress came bringing my coffee and the brownies "You could have easily fell and get yourself hurt or worse so I run after the ball and when I turned you and the boy were looking at me. I gave you the ball and you just smiled and went away" I remembered that so I just smiled and started eating. I turned at him and asked the question that worried me more.

"How do you know about me? I mean… Does he know about me?" I asked although I wasn't sure I wanted to hear the answer.

"I don't know" I looked at him sceptical "It's true. I knew about you because of a magazine. I went with one of my… _friends _to the hairdresser and I saw a fashion magazine. Brooke Davis' child, a blonde girl with a squint look" He looked at me smiling "You have Lucas' nose and the Scott's smirk. You don't need to be smart to see that. If he knows he has never said a word" I must looked truly disappointed because he added "I'm sorry"

"Yeah, me too" I said.

"You haven't told me what you are doing here…" He asked

"I'm looking for Lucas. I want answers. I want to know who I am" I said and he nodded.

"You're a nice kid. Maybe you're better out of here" He smiled sadly "I have to go but I guess I will see you around" I shrugged, not even I did know what I was going to do. When he left I felt alone all of sudden, maybe Dad wasn't wrong. I took my phone and called Alex telling him where I was so they could come and I called Mom.

"Hi" I said quietly when she picked it up. I hadn't been very nice to her in the previous weeks.

"Allie! How are you? Where are you now? Is everything ok? Do you need anything?" She asked rambling and I smiled.

"I'm ok Mom. I'm sorry I didn't…"

"It's ok, Allie. I should have told you everything I know I guess I'm just scared of losing you" I was astonished.

"Losing me? Mom that is not going to happen, I love you and… I need you" I smiled sadly. I had rushed coming here and now I was asking Mom to come and rescue me. If I wanted to act as an adult I was doing exactly the opposite.

"You want me to go there? I can settle it for a week or so. Rach can be in charge of the Company and I can take the kids there too. I have always wanted to show you were I grew up" The fact that my mom was willing to leave everything and come with me instead of pleasing me made me feel like the worse daughter ever. So I said the first thing that came to my mind… again.

"I've met Dan Scott!"

"_What?"_ Mom asked somewhat scared.

"He said he knew me, actually he has been 'keeping an eye on me', you know. I had met him once in the park when I was six but I didn't remember…"

"_What?_" Mom asked again, she was almost hyperventilating. "Don't talk to that man. I am going to catch the first flight to Tree Hill, ok? I will call you later, sweetheart. I have to settle everything. Take care and don't get near Dan. I love you" She said in a hurry and before I could say anything she had hanged up. So I stayed there eating brownies until the boys came.

"Have you eaten all that?" Alex asked amused "You never leave anything when it comes to food. You're such a bad person"

"And you are so nice" He smiled proud "I was being sarcastic!" I clarified.

"Are you better?" He asked looking into my eyes, but I couldn't hear him. All I could see was his pale blue eyes looking at me and his smile. Someone cleared his throat behind me and rolled my eyes to Declan.

"Mom is coming, I just spoke to her"

"Really?" I nodded and he looked at Alex "And Dad and the kids?"

"They come with Mom but I think Dad is staying there, he has shifts this week" His face turned serious.

"What are we going to do?" I blinked quickly

"What do you mean?" I asked

"The boy, Michael came this morning to our room" I looked at the table "He said his father, Lucas Scott, was in the hospital" I raised my gaze so fast that my neck hurt "He has a heart condition and he fainted yesterday night when he confronted him… about you. But, don't worry, he is ok" I was thankful that Alex was telling me this because Declan wasn't very tactful "He wanted to talk to you" I nodded

"Did he say where we could find him?" I asked

"He is at his uncle's home, he left the address" Alex handed me a paper. "Are you going to go to see him?" I wondered for a bit.

"Yes, we are paying a visit to the Scotts" I said smiling.

* * *

When Declan parked on the Scott's sidewalk I had the strange feeling of being living a dream. Sometimes, not many I have to admit, Mom would explain us some thing about Tree Hill and her school friends and when she talked about Haley Scott I imagined her as a younger fairy godmother, nice and kind. Was she really like that? Declan went ahead and rang the bell, after a minute the younger boy opened the door.

"You are the ones from Rivercourt" He said

"Uh, yes. We are looking for Michael, he told us to come here" I said nicely, he was a nice boy and he reminded me of my brothers. Suddenly I missed home; it felt like weeks since I had seen my sibling for the last time instead of two days.

"He is in the hospital with Uncle Luke, Dad, Jamie and Jen. But Mom is here" He hadn't finished when a woman in her early forties appeared. She looked at me and I noticed there were tears on her eyes.

"You must be Allie" I had a lump on my throat so I just nodded. "I'm Haley, I'm your aunt" She started crying so I moved forward and hugged her. She seemed surprised but hugged me back now smiling. "You are lovely!" I smiled and moved back

"This is my brother Declan" She looked at us with a puzzled look.

"I'm Patrick Bentley's son but Brooke has raised me since I was a baby…" He shrugged not knowing what else to say and she smiled at him

"I understand. Nice to meet you Declan" He smiled back and the awkwardness was gone. She was really nice. "And who are you? Another son of Brooke?"

"Uh, no. I'm Alexander Kushner and I'm here because I have been Allie's best friend since pre-school. Nice to meet you!" He said in a rush and we all laughed.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so impolite! Come on in" She said as she moved to let us in.

"Are you my cousin?" The boy asked

"Yes, I… I am" I said although the words felt strange

"Why I hadn't seen you before?" There was an awkward moment. No one knew how to answer that simple yet too complicated question

"That's because we live far from here" Alex told him, then he turned and winked at me.

"How far away?"

"In New York City" I said as he opened his eyes in surprise "You know you can come to visit me sometime now" I smiled as did he.

"Ethan, baby, why don't you go outside and play with that new truck of yours" He sadly nodded. "Tell me everything about you! This is so exciting!" We smiled. "How is Brooke?"

"She's fine, thanks! She's coming… today"

"Really? It's good to hear that because I am going to kill her!" We laughed.

Declan, Alex and I spent the whole morning speaking with Haley. She was incredibly nice and wanted to know everything not only about me but also about Alex and Dec which I thought it was very polite.

"And who is your godmother?" She asked me curiously.

"I don't think you know her…" I started

"She must know her. She is from Tree Hill" Declan said "She and Mom met here"

"Do you know Rachel Gattina?" I asked and judging the expression on her face she not only knew her but also couldn't stand her.

"Hales! We are home!" A voice called from the hall.

"In the kitchen!" She said "How's Luke?"

"He is leaving tomorrow the doctor said…" When he saw me he stopped talking. I was getting used to this reaction when people saw me.

"Oh, Nate, she's Allie"

"I know who she is" He looked a lot like Dan "You still look the same" He muttered.

"Hi" I greeted him shyly; his presence was somewhat uncomfortable as his children stare. He just looked at me… regretful?

"Aren't you going to greet her?" His wife asked. He hugged me slightly

"Oh! You came!" Michael's voice was happy. After his reaction yesterday, he was nice to see me today? "Do you want to go for a walk? Can we Aunt Hales?" She nodded and I looked at Dec and Alex who smiled, so I just followed him.

* * *

We walked in silence for a while until I broke the silence.

"So, you are Michael Scott?" Stupid question!

"Um, yes." He looked down "Listen, I'm sorry about yesterday and I got… I had never heard about you and all of sudden you came here looking for Dad, looking like him"

"Don't worry I can understand it" He nodded.

"So how old are you?" I smiled

"Eighteen. You are younger, right?"

"Sixteen" So I had another younger brother. I liked him

"Do you have siblings?" I asked hopeful

"A sister from my mom's side. She's your age. And you? "

"Well, you already know Declan. He's nineteen and he's my dad's son but my mom raised him so he's my brother. And I have four younger" I said as he looked at me in surprise

"Four?" He asked and I laughed

"Yes, all boys! Can you believe it?"

"Must be _terrible_ for you!" He said mocking "A lot of boys, I'm sure you tell them to do things all day"

"No, I'm not that bad. Brayden is fifteen, Alfie just turned thirteen and Caiden will be eleven next month. And we have the baby"

"The baby… nice name!" He said and we both laughed

"His name is Cathal" I said

"Irish names?" He asked

"We are Irish. I mean, Dad is Irish. He's from Limerick"

"Jamie has told me a lot of things about your mom" He changed subject, I guess he wasn't comfortable talking with me about my dad "Brooke Davis"

"How did you know she is my mom" I asked "I forget to ask it to Haley"

"Jamie told us" He said "He writes to your mom and he just tied the loose ends. Although… Uncle Nate didn't seem surprised" He looked at me and I just shrugged

"You are going to like my mom, she's amazing" He looked at me surprised "She is coming tonight"

"This is going to be an interesting day" He said simply and I couldn't agree more.

* * *

**Hi! I don't like this chapter. I think it doesn't have 'action' lol But it is necessary to know some important stuff. Do you like it? As you can see… Brooke is in her way to Tree Hill. What is going to happen? Next chapter… Luke's POV!**


	6. Explanations

**Explanations**

When Lucas Scott woke up that day it was already midday and the first thing he did was to pray the night before events were just a nightmare but then he heard the machine beeping and all he could do was closing his eyes.

"I see you are awake, Mr Scott" said the doctor as he entered the room and Lucas nodded "How are you feeling?"

"Not very well. Did I have a hear attack?" He asked getting worried.

"Oh, no, no! Don't worry, Mr Scott. Warning signs but your brother acted very quickly" He smiled for a moment and then turned serious "We are going to keep you under observation for the next 24 hours" And even if sounded coward he felt that was good news because otherwise he would have to face everyone. As soon as the doctor left another person came in.

"Well, well" Dan Scott said smiling. "Good way to avoid what it's coming, son"

"Get out" Lucas said weaker than he intended.

"Do you know what I did this morning? No, of course you don't. I had breakfast with my granddaughter" the surprised look Lucas gave him became a painful one when Dan added "You probably know her: Allie Bentley" that look was enough confirmation to Dan's suspects.

"I don't know what you are talking about" He said stubbornly.

"Yes, you do. Brooke Davis' kid, your kid" Dan said quietly.

Lucas just looked to the window and he saw the beach, the seagulls and the sailing ship. He could imagine himself there, just like his mom and his sister years ago… sailing away but he could hear nothing so he came back to reality. What was the point of hiding it anymore? But before he could say anything to his father someone stormed in the room.

"Please leave" She said and even if her voice was sweet the determination in her voice made Dan look over Lucas and leave. "Mike called me this morning, I couldn't believe it! How are you?" He just smiled.

"I'm ok, June. Thanks for coming"

"Oh, you know. Hospitals are horrible so I thought I could come here and keep you company. I brought books. It's a good offer plus you don't have to worry about the bookshop, it's lunch time"

"You can stay, I have never wanted your company more than now" She looked at him surprised but she just asked.

"What happened?"

"I just had an argument with Michael. Actually it was him yelling at me"

"Mike? I can't believe… "

"It was my fault" If he wanted to unburden himself June was the one that had to hear him, she would just listen and never judge or so he thought.

"What did you do?" She asked and she seemed to fear his answer

"I lied. By omission. To everyone" Lucas said guiltier than he had ever felt.

"About what?" He hesitated but he eventually said

"I have a daughter, an eighteen years old daughter" The impression was too much and June got up from the seat.

"What? You have a daughter, an eighteen years old daughter and nobody knew anything?" He nodded his head "What did you do? Hide her under a rock?" In spite of the situation Lucas smiled.

"She has been living with her mom in NYC"

"Interesting, I guess…" She said walking from the door to the window once and again "Why you didn't say anything?" He just shrugged and the sadness covered his face again.

"I wish I could give you an answer but there is none"

"People don't abandon children just because" She said

"She has nice life there I didn't want to screw that up"

"That's the lamest excuse I've heard. I mean you can't just wake up a day and decide that the best for your child is to keep her away from you and your family! You are her father, she may have needed you" He hadn't though about that "You are the most selfish person I have met… even more than Kevin and all my exes"

"June" He said

"I can't… I can't talk to you now. I'm sorry. I admired you! And you… I will see you later" She was gone.

* * *

Maybe this hadn't been the best idea he had had. He thought about Peyton, when she knew his child was back she wouldn't hesitate about returning home. He wondered about his child then and smiled. Did she still look so much like him or more like Brooke? Did she still went to old bookshops or she wasn't interested in books anymore? But there was a truth lying beneath all his lies, his silence and his apparent resignation: he had child he had tried to ignore with the only woman he had ever loved and that child, his daughter, was looking for him. What was he going to do? He didn't know that but it didn't matter. Maybe it was time to face his mistakes and to face Peyton.

He spent the rest of the day watching TV, nothing in particular and just thinking what he was going to do but his thoughts were interrupted when Haley entered the room followed by Nathan.

"How are you feeling?" She asked nicely.

"Good" He replied unsure about what she was planning, he looked at his brother.

"Great! Because you owe us a lot of explanations. You can start now!" She said rudely

"I…"

"You knew about her, didn't you?" She said with a tone that didn't allow a negative answer.

"Yes, I knew"

"Brooke told you?" She asked with tear on her eyes and Lucas just nodded. "Before she left?" He nodded again "God, Lucas! What the heck were you thinking? The reason Brooke left…"

"That was true…" Nathan stayed frozen on his place, behind his wife.

"And you let her go knowing that she was pregnant with your child?" Lucas couldn't say if her face showed disappointment, frustration, sadness or confusion.

"It was the best" He said quietly

"For who? For you, so you could be happy with your damn Peyton?"

"For her! For Brooke!" Haley just laughed and Nathan kept his silence "I love her! She deserved more than this more than me and so did the child"

"And when did you decide than?" She asked still angry

"It was obvious! I keep hurting Brooke even when I don't want to! And when Nathan I saw them…"

"What?!" He had just made another mistake "You also knew about her?" She asked turning to see her husband guilty face nodding "How long…?"

"Thirteen years" Nathan said with a hoarse voice, Haley just put her hand on her forehead and turned away from them "Do you remember when Lucas and I went to NYC to watch a Knicks' match? We were supposed to go with Jamie but he caught a cold in the last minute…" Haley just nodded "Lucas convinced me to go with him to a bookshop in a mall. There we met a girl, a little girl" He smiled "She was seated on the counter and she was alone. Lucas talked to her…"

Flashback

Lucas and Nathan are standing near the counter where a little girl about four or five was waiting. Lucas saw her

"Hi" He said smiling.

"Hi" She replied quietly "My daddy says I must not talk to estrangers, especially men" Lucas turned and saw Nathan laughing.

"We are not bad men. What are you doing on the counter?"

"Waiting for my books"

"You are too young to read" Nathan said

"You're never too young or too old. You just are" She said and Nathan looked at his brother surprised.

"So you can read?" She nodded

"Not pretty good but my daddy is teaching me. But he is the one that read us the books"

"I see. And you like books?" She nodded again

"Little Miss Bentley" An old man said in a solemn tone as the girl smiled at him "Here are the books your parents asked and this one" He pointed an old book that Lucas recognized as 'Just so Stories by Rudyard Kipling' "This one is for you. My Christmas present"

"There is still two weeks to go and I don't have a present for you" Her face fell and Lucas thought it was somewhat familiar.

"I gave it to you in advance. Just in case. And about your present, a hug is more than enough" The girl smiled and got up still on the counter as she hugged the old man as he kissed her on the cheek..

"Thanks" Lucas saw the man gesturing her.

"It's nothing. Do you need help?" He asked as he saw her trying to get off the counter.

"I got her" Nathan said as he hold the girl and let her on the floor.

"Thanks, sir"

"Allie, come on! We are going to be late" Lucas could have recognized that raspy voice anywhere and he looked at the child but she was jumping on her way to her mother but the girl just handed her the bag as a man carried the child on his arms, tickling her as Brooke paid. Lucas noticed she was pregnant. The man walked until he reached her hand and when they left Lucas still could hear the child's guffaws

"…Lucas didn't move in like five minutes. He stayed there, motionless and I didn't knew what was going on, why he had reacted like that just by seeing Brooke" Lucas remembered that moment closing his eyes and when he opened them Nathan continued "That night, in the hotel room, he told me everything about Brooke, what had happened with Peyton, that Brooke had told him she was pregnant before she left,… and I understood his reaction. That kid was my niece, the very same Allie that was this morning at our house" Lucas opened his eyes surprised but before he could ask anything, Haley did.

"Why you didn't tell me? I'm your wife, I told you everything. We are supposed to trust each other!" She asked crying

"I promised Luke I was never going to talk about that, not even with him. I told him to look for Brooke and their girl but he told me he wasn't going to do anything. That they were happy and that that was all he wanted and needed to know" Nathan said looking at the floor "Hales, I'm sorry… I should have tell you"

"Yes, but _he_ should have told us before" She pointed Lucas "I took the liberty of calling Karen" Lucas closed his eyes "She's truly disappointed and very angry I must add, Lucas, but she's coming home" She closed her eyes too and breathed heavily "Do you really thing she was better away from you because you saw her laughing in the arms of another man? During what, 2 minutes? I can understand that you didn't want Peyton near Allie, but Michael, Allie herself… and Brooke! God, Lucas…" She gasped and before he said anything she added "I asked Allie, her brother and her friend to stay with us tonight. Tomorrow the doctor is going to release you. Find a better way to tell her this because if you tell her that you knew about her and you did nothing… she's not going to forget you. She's stronger than Brooke" She smiled "And luckily, she doesn't love you unconditionally" And she left followed by an intimidated Nathan.

He looked at his window, it was already dark. Did this day keep him another surprise? He heard the door open and assumed it was Haley.

"Haley, listen I…"

"I'm not Haley" Her voice, he could recognize that voice anywhere.

"Brooke" He turned and saw her standing on his door, prettier than ever, looking at him with sadness but smiling showing those dimples he hadn't see in thirteen years, since that day on that old bookshop.

"Hi, Luke"


	7. Brooke's story

**Brooke's story**

Brooke Davis had always thought that her return to Tree Hill was going to be in different circumstances. But now, seated on that plane with her kids and heading to the place she grew up, she hoped this wasn't anything but a dream. She had left Tree Hill almost nineteen years ago when she was a 23 years old pregnant, scared and broken girl; she would never say she had run away from there but everybody in NY knew it. Brooke didn't think she was running away from the place but from who was in there and she found it ironic that now the second main reason she was going back was to see him.

"Momma, hungry" She looked down at the baby in her lap, he had brownish blond curls and blue Vermeer eyes. She smiled at the boy as she reached her handbag and took out a cookies pack.

"Momma bought you some cookies!" She laughed as the boy tried to get them "Wait, Cathal" She handed him a couple and turned to her right side where, on the next row, her older kids were watching the animation movie that was being offered "Bray" She called her oldest as the boy turned his head to reach the pack and smile at his mother, a smile that didn't show his dimples. Brayden's smile reminded her her own fake smile and she wondered about why he hadn't smiled a real smile. Brayden wasn't a shy boy, he was just like her both physically and psychologically, but he had been very timid those last days. She glanced at him again: headphones on his hears, his brown hair falling into his face but his hazel eyes weren't looking at the screen. Maybe she had had to explain them the situation. Maybe he was just worried. She started to think she had made the same mistake twice: protect her children by not telling them what was going on. Over the years Brooke had learnt to don't say a word about her thoughts or her life to anybody but Patrick and Rachel and she had took that to the extreme, she only had to see what had happened with Allie to find an example. When she was young, she had been in the middle of her parents fights and she was aware of all the problems, the discrepancies and she had promised herself she wasn't going to do that to her children, they were kids and they needed and deserved a happy life, without any other worry than the next game they were playing or their homework. She turned and glanced at her kids again. Caiden should have felt his mother's look over them because he turned and smiled back at her, showing his dimples. Brooke changed the baby's position in her lap to make him comfortable as he took a nap. She didn't need to worry about what was coming as long as her children were fine and with that thought she closed her eyes too.

* * *

"Mom. Mommy. Mom!" Brooke woke up scared and looking around looking for the voice, she found him kneeling on her left side smiling mischievously "Sorry" He apologized but she couldn't find regret in her 12 years old voice "They announced the landing; you have to seat properly and fasten the seatbelt. I can hold the baby"

"It's ok, Alfie. Go, seat, fasten your seatbelt" She glanced over her son's shoulder "and wake up Kai" The boy laughed hard showing his almost imperceptible dimples.

"Mom, you know that's mission impossible!" She laughed as well "I will fasten his seatbelt but I don't think he wakes up until we land, maybe we even have to…"

"Can you go seat, please?" An air hostess interrupted her child and he obediently seated between his brothers. "Do you need help with the baby?" When she shook her head the woman disappeared and she prepared herself not for the landing but for what was coming after that, she was never going to be prepared.

* * *

When she had Cathal comfortably seated on his stroller, she felt less worried, freer and also more scared she had been in a lot of time. As the boys waited for their bags, she took her cell phone and dialled.

"Darling! How was the flight?" She smiled and calmed down when she heard his voice.

"We are ok, we just landed. How's everything there?"

"I miss you. You can't imagine how silent the house is" His tone saddened "I talked to Johnson. I can go there this weekend" Weekend, it was Tuesday and that meant she was going to face everything on her own "I know it's late but it's summer and you know how strict he is"

"It's ok, Patrick, really" She tried to sound cheerful but she failed miserably. She loved him but she hated his work that kept him away from her. "Wanna talk to the boys?"

"Are they around?" His voice sounded happier and she smiled looking over "Well, Bray is waiting for the bags and… Alfie is chasing Kai" She rolled her eyes "And I don't think you want to talk to the baby…"

"Put him on the phone" She kneeled in front of her baby and handed him the phone.

"Daddy wants to talk with his baby" She smiled as she saw her child laugh and babble some words "Give daddy a kiss" And Cathal do it, noisily, then he passed her the phone.

"Interesting conversation?" She asked.

"Always!" They stayed in silence a minute just enjoying the fact that even 600 miles away they were still together "I'm going to miss you tonight" He said with such a baby's voice than she couldn't help the laughter.

"Me too but we have got the phone!" She said seductively.

"That's so gross!" She turned to see the three boys standing behind her with a disgust face and she stuck her tongue out at them.

"Your children think we are gross" He laughed

"They are still young. I will call you tonight. Tell the kids I love them and give them a kiss"

"I love you"

"I love you too, darling" And he hung up.

"Dad said to give you a kiss" She said joking; she knew what they were going to say.

"There is no way you kiss me in a crowded place, Mom" Brayden said moving away from her.

"Come on! You know you love me!" She smiled as her son nervously looked around hoping nobody had heard her saying that.

"I will give you a kiss, when we are in the hotel, but not here, not now" She put her best puppy face trying to hold the laughter as he hesitated, but when he saw his siblings giggling he just told her "I'm fifteen! I don't kiss my mom in front of people"

"I do!" And before she could move, Caiden was jumping into her arms and giving her a kiss "I love you, Mom!" She smiled at her sweet boy.

"I love you too, Kai, but you're so big now… I can barely hold you!" Realizing the boy moved. She glanced at Alfie waiting for his reaction.

"I agree with both" He said "I love you like Kai but I'm not gonna give you a kiss here like Bray" She laughed at this and in matter of seconds all of them were laughing, even the baby and like this they went out to find a taxi.

* * *

After she checked in and left their bags in their hotel rooms, Brooke decided it was time to go to Haley's. She hadn't seen her since a month before she had left, when everything was ok and the future seemed to smile at them. She never had the courage to call her or write her, she knew Haley would have never approved what she had done. In the beginning it was because she wanted to get out of Tree Hill as soon as she could, then it was because she was ashamed and scared about Haley's opinion, after than she was worried about the excuses she would have to give her and like that, in nineteen years, she had never talked to her. Luckily, she kept in touch with her godson. She hadn't seen him but she had seen photographs. She loved Jamie as much as she loved her own children; he had taught her a lot of things, been the cause of others and encouraged her to continue. Every time she saw him, his photographs, she saw her own daughter: the same smile, the same eyes and it tormented her because she remembered about Lucas and her heart ached but then, one day, she woke up and looking at her daughter making breakfast with Patrick she had seen her daughter, Jamie's cousin and the similarities the, then, six years old shared with her father were nothing else but a memory of a happy moment.

"Where are we going?" Alfie's voice broke her thoughts.

"To find Allie and Dec, they are at an old friend of mine's house" The boy looked confused "Do you remember Jamie, my godson?" He nodded "We are going to his parent's home" Alfie just smiled.

"Momma" Caiden called her "Has Allie found her dad?"

"She already has a dad!" She, Alfie and Kai looked at Brayden who was seating on the co-drivers seat "She has a dad" He said more calmed and he turned to continue looking by the window. Now it fit. Brayden was scared of Allie staying here. She smiled, Brayden and Allie spent all day yelling at each other and fighting over everything but it was obvious that if she was gone Brayden would miss her dearly. She would do it too.

"Brayden" She called him and he turned to look at her "We are going to fix this" He smiled weakly and turned again to the window.

* * *

"It's here" Said the car driver. And when they get out, Brooke felt sick and worried. What was she going to say to Haley? The truth. She had been avoiding it for too long, it was time to tell everyone the truth.

"Aunt Brooke?" A deep voice called her and when she looked at him she felt the tears in her eyes. Jamie Scott was looking at her with his bright greenish blue eyes, his hair was as dark as Nathan's and he was, for sure, taller than his father. Carefully she put Cathal on the floor and hugged her _little_ godson. "I've missed you! It's so great to have you here! We have so much to talk about! Are these your children? I have met Dec and Allie already and… I'm talking too much, right?" She just smiled and hugged him again.

"I left a child and I find a man" He smiled and looked at her intensely.

"I was left by a lost young woman and I was found by a confident, happy woman" She smiled at him and realised that behind him were two other kids. He followed her glance "Oh! This is my sister Jennifer but we call her Jen, she's Allie's age, and he's Ethan"

"Hi" She hugged both kids "These are my kids. Brayden" She pointed him and he raised his hand shyly.

"He's your carbon copy!" Jamie laughed.

"Of course! I'm so good that I had to have a boy just like me, the world deserved it" She joked winking at him and the tension fell considerably.

"Alfie" The boy smirked with confidence when he heard his name and waved his hand. "Caiden, Kai to the family" Brooke felt him move besides her "and baby Cathal" When Jamie approached him, the baby started crying.

"Sorry!" He said as his siblings laughed.

"Mom!" She turned to see Allie's running to her with three boys behind her: Declan, Alex and a boy she didn't knew. When she arrived she hugged her and Brooke held her tight "I'm sorry"

"Don't worry. It's ok. We are going to fix this mess" With a sad expression that reminded her Lucas' more than ever, Allie took Cathal into her arms.

"How's my baby?" She smiled as she saw Cathal calming down as he started playing with Allie's sandy blonde locks "Hi" She smiled at the boys as she hugged them, Brooke noticed the special look Allie and Brayden shared and she felt proud of her kids.

"Mom" Declan hugged her and she smiled at him, she was a younger version of Patrick with his dark hair and his blue Vermeer eyes. She has raised him since he was a year old and she felt him as her own, her eldest boy.

"If you do anything like this again… I'll kill you" All of them laughed

"Mrs. D" Alex called her and she hugged the boy even though he was taller than her.

"Alex, you got carried away by Allie _again_!" He glanced at her daughter and she smiled sweetly back at him

"You know I can't resist her, ma'am" Alex said joking.

"Well, your mother asked me to tell you that you're grounded until you're 21" Brooke said sweetly and they all laughed as Alex's expression changed in a second. "Who are you?" She asked at the boy she didn't know but it was needless, he could have been Allie's twin.

"I am Michael Scott, ma'am" He said quietly and she closed her eyes as she remembered Lucas' shyness. "It's nice to meet you, Allie and Jamie had told me a lot of things about you!"

"Nice to meet you too, Michael" He smiled and she noticed that they boy's smile was Peyton's. "Where are Haley and Nathan?"

"Oh! They are in the hospital visiting Uncle Luke, he had warning signs of a heart attack" Jen had had to notice her worry because she added quickly "He's ok, don't worry. He's going to be released tomorrow"

"Jen, uhm, we have to talk. Can you bring the Bentley kids in and watch a movie with them or something?" Asked Jamie cautiously and Brooke smiled, he was like Haley.

"I want to stay. I want to know and I'm old enough to support whatever you have to say, mom" Brayden said and she nodded because he was right

"I think Allie, Brayden, Michael and Jamie have to stay. You can too if you want to, Dec" She said knowing that this had nothing to do with her son but he would stay anyway.

"I want Alex to stay" Allie's voice was strong when she said it as she handed the baby to Jen and Brooke could just nodded. Allie and he were inseparable, this was going to be hard to her daughter and she knew she was going to need his support.

The six of them headed to the garden and seated by the pool, she seated on a chair besides Jamie and Declan, Brayden was seating on the ground as was Allie who was holding Alex's hand, and Michael was a bit away from them but also on the ground. This was going to be hard, she had to explain to five kids things that had happened almost two decades ago and that not even she completely understood.

"What do you want to know?" She asked with her voice raspier than ever.

"Everything" Allie's voice, on the other side, trembled. Brooke nodded.

"Nineteen years ago I was living in Tree Hill. I… I had opened a new store here and I had a foster child" she smiled "Angie. Peyton, my school's best friend, was living with me… and she was madly in love with Lucas. Lucas and I had dated trough High School but everybody seemed to have forgotten it, even us. He was a mess, as always" Michael laughed "He had been jilt by Lindsay, his fiancé, because he had wrote a book about a comet" The boys looked at her confused.

"A comet? Why do you jilt someone because he writes a book about a comet?" Asked Brayden.

"Peyton's car was a comet. Everybody thought Lucas was in love with her, with Peyton"

"Did you?" Allie looked at her mother and Brooke could read in her eyes, she knew already the answer.

"I needed to believe it. I broke up with him, the second time, because she had told me she was in love with him. I was scared he was in love with her too so I set him free. They got together but separated eventually. I needed them together so I didn't feel I had given up everything for nothing." Tears started to roll down her face "I loved him, more than anything and I wanted him to be happy so I obliged myself to hide my feeling in the deeper place in my heart and I encouraged him to go and get Peyton. I don't know why I loved him, he was always an ass" Everybody laughed. "But one day, a man broke into my shop and I was beaten up" Declan gasped "I wasn't myself for a while, I was scared of everything and I just wanted to be alone so I made Peyton move in with Lucas and I gave free reign to my pain. They rushed things and their relationship wasn't ok, they barely saw each other and the broke up although they continue living together. Weeks after that Peyton left to check up on an artist she was producing and Lucas came to my place" She stopped at looked the kids, Declan was looking at the ground, Jamie had a concentrated expression on his face and Brooke thought he was trying to fit the pieces, Brayden was looking at her afraid of what she was going to say, Alex was hugging her daughter as she looked at her crying accusing her of something she hadn't said yet and Michael sent her an apologetic look.

"Go on, _mother_" Said Allie and Brooke looked at her sadly.

"I… I don't know who started, we were drunk and… all I remember is waking up by his side, naked. I ran away, to New York. Peyton was arriving the following day and I couldn't imagine look at her after what I had done. I felt so guilty! My arguments with Peyton were always because she had kissed Lucas when he was my boyfriend and stuff like that but I had done something worse. Lucas called me during the month I stayed in New York, but I ignored him. I met your father then" Brooke sobbed "Declan's mother had left and he was alone raising a baby and studying medicine. I hired him for an advertisement. I met you then" She glanced at Declan "You were so cute! Blonde but you already had those unmistakable blue Vermeer eyes. In that month I also leant that I was pregnant. I got carried away by the excitement. I had always wanted a child and one with Lucas was just… the best thing that could happen to me. I call him and I told him I had some news and that I was going back soon, I didn't say when and he didn't tell me anything about Peyton." Brooke laughed "I thought she had moved out or they had broken up for good. I thought they had had they closure and I imagined myself with Lucas and our child" She started sobbing harder and Declan hugged her running his hand on her back.

"It's ok, Mom. It's ok"

"No, it's not ok! I came back… without saying anyone and I went to his home. I found him, in bed with Peyton, they weren't doing anything yet, but he was shirtless… I had obviously interrupted them. I was so tired of getting hurt by them! Peyton smiled at me showing me her pregnant belly and my world crashed in a second, when Lucas realized I was there he came running after me. We argued and I threw him the ultrasound telling him that I was going away and that I wasn't going to let him see the child because I wasn't going to let him hurt the baby as he hurt me over and over again.

"He knew it!" Allie's broken voice arrived to Brooke's ears and she sobbed harder.

"I'm so sorry, baby. I'm so sorry" But she didn't listen to her.

"What happened next? You went back to NY and when he followed you, you sent him back?" She asked harshly.

"I went back to NY, yes. Nobody knew I had come to Tree Hill and I hoped everybody thought I was so scared by the robbery that I didn't want to come back. When my mother learnt I was pregnant she confronted me, she wanted to know who the father was and to have an abortion, I didn't tell her anything and I refused to kill you. She called me a slut and disinherited me. Everything was a mess and I could only trust Rachel. She was there for me when no one else was, when no one else wanted to, when no one else cared. You were growing inside me and by the time I was four months along I realized I had to stop crying every night because Lucas wasn't coming after us, he chose Peyton, he stayed here with her. So I… I had to pluck up courage and keep going. One day I saw you and your father in the supermarket" She looked at Declan who smiled "When he saw me he was wide eyed and the only thing he said was 'Wow, you're really pregnant', we spent the next hour looking for tuna pizzas" The kids looked at her confused

"Tuna Pizzas?" Asked Jamie laughing.

"Cravings" She just said shrugging as the kids laughed "He was so amazing with me. I could have never got over Lucas and that entire situation without him. Magazines thought they had found the man and when he saw it he confessed me he was in love with me and with you" She glanced at her daughter who had her head hid in Alex neck but she didn't wait an answer and continued "He asked me to be the baby's father and I agreed, I wasn't in love with him because my heart ached for Lucas but I could see my future with Patrick and I knew he would never leave us, we would always be his priority besides medicine of course" Brayden laughed hard "and I saw in his eyes love. So, when you were born, the day after Peyton and Lucas married, I wrote his name on the birth certificate. I was a private person and nobody doubted it, Rachel and us were the only ones to know the truth. Your looks wasn't a worry for us, you know Declan was blond as a baby as was Alfie and as it is Cathal. Not even you wondered. By the time you were almost two, I was totally in love with that sweet dark haired man with blue Vermeer eyes and with his Irish sense of humour, he would always make me smile, no matter how tired I was, how angry I was. When we were together the world seemed to be a better place so we got married and Brayden arrived later that year and… you know the rest." Brooke ended and they all stayed in silence for some minutes.

"I want to go home" Allie was looking at her with tears in her eyes.

"Allie…"

"I haven't lost anything here! I don't want to meet him, I just wanna go home!"

"Allie…"

"I thought he… I thought he didn't know, that you had taken me away from him and that he hadn't come because he didn't knew" Allie cried harder and Brooke's heart broke, this was exactly what she didn't want: her daughter hurting. "But he knew! He knew! And he never came after us!" She got up and was moving back, away from them…

"Allie…" She glanced at Alex and shook her head.

"I came here to find a father but I… I already have one, I have the best. Take us home, Mom"

"I can't" Brooke said with her raspy voice trembling and Allie just looked at her begging, when her daughter went away Brooke tried to follow her.

"No! I don't think it is a good idea. I'm going to get her" After say that Alex started running after her.

Brooke seated again defeated and she only reacted when she felt Kai's arms around her and Brayden giving her a kiss.

"I owed you that. You're brave, Mom. I love you" She smiled and reached her two other children.

"I love you all"

Brooke stayed there surrounded by her godson and her kids (and Lucas' kid) for a while just thinking about what had happened, what was going to happen and she decided that the sooner she fixed this, the better and so she got up.

"I have got to go. I will come later to get you." Declan looked at her understanding

"I have my car here, I can take the kids to the hotel" Brooke just nodded as she left.

* * *

As she arrived to the hospital she saw Haley and Nathan leaving but she didn't call them, she just continued.

"Excuse me; I'm looking for Lucas Scott"

"Room 327" The woman replied without even looking at her.

Brooke went to the lifts feeling more nervous she had felt in twenty years, she wanted to do what Allie wanted and go away but she knew that this was something that needed to be solved as soon as possible so she get in and pressed '3'. As the doors opened her phone started ringing on her purse, she knew it was Patrick and for the first time ever she ignored the call and continued. She hesitated when she was in front of his door but she breathed deeper and opened it.

"Haley, listen I…" Her heart started racing as she heard his voice and she got even more nervous.

"I'm not Haley" She said quietly, scared of what she was feeling.

"Brooke" He turned to look at her and she saw him. Older but as handsome as always, his baby blue eyes stuck on her and all she could say was

"Hi, Luke"

* * *

**Do you like it or not?. I'm thinking about skip Allie's turn on next chapter and start a new round with Luke. What do you think? **


	8. Dazed & Confused

Dazed & Confused

Have you ever felt as if everything around you was moving really fast but you are just still? Have you ever felt small? Have you ever felt you can't control your own life at all?

As I ran away from that house I could hear my mother calling me but I just kept running. I felt so bad; I had blamed her for something she hadn't done. I had spent the last two weeks being sarcastic and harsh to her and she hadn't done anything. Mom wasn't a normal mom in the way she is there to control you choose the right path, she was more than that, she was our friend. My friends (and Alex whose mom was always working) loved her and I remember how I proud of that first and jealous after. Brooke Davis was special; she was different maybe because she was very charismatic and sweet or because she was always smiling and trying to help people… whatever the reason was nobody could deny it. But I also knew she wasn't as strong as she pretended, she was also so worried about every living being on earth that she forget about herself, so all she did before and after I was born really surprised me and I felt prouder. My Mom wasn't strong but she was brave and I could just wish I was more like her.

I was so stuck on my own thoughts that I barely felt the crash and I only reacted when a boy knelt by my side.

"Are you ok?" He looked at me worried but I was busy admiring, he was really handsome "Hey!"

"What? Oh, yes, yes, I'm ok" He helped me to get up and put his hands on his pockets.

"I'm Tom"

"I'm…"

"Allie!" I had never thought Alex was inopportune until now "Fuck! When did you start running so fast? I've been following you since you left the house!" I rolled my eyes, typical Alex: follow me even when he knew I didn't want to be followed. I looked at Tom again and I noticed his discomfort. "Who's this?"

"Tom" I answered and I felt Alex's intense gaze at me.

"I… got to go. I hope to see you around" Said Tom and he left.

"You're quick making friends" I smiled at the mock on his voice "You know why I'm here"

"To take me back to Naley's home, to Mom"

"Actually I was going to say to make you see the reason" He said ashamed and I laughed.

"Good, good"

"Allie..."

"I know what you are going to say: Listen to your mom because she is… your mom and she's right" He laughed

"Not really. You don't see to know me at all!" I laughed this time too "I was going to say that you have two options now: you can keep been childish, having tantrums and thinking everybody lied to you or… you can just do something" I looked at him amazed. He could be so laid back that in those moments he actually acted mature he would just marvel me.

"So what do you propose we do?"

"I think _you_ should apologize to your mom and then go and talk to Lucas Scott"

"_What?_!"

"Come on! You have seen it! I mean… ok, you blamed your mom until she told you the truth. Listen to him, listen his story, his reasons and then hate him if you think that is what you have to do. It makes sense."

"I don't want to talk to him. Jeez, I don't even want to see him!" I said stubbornly but the idea wasn't bad, he made sense.

"So you have decided to be childish?" I rolled my eyes.

"You think this is easy, right? It is not! Have discovered so many things in the last weeks, blamed and hated so many people, I have acted as If I were five again and I have felt so alone" My chin trembled but I held the tears.

"You're right. I can't understand but you can't know the truth knowing only one side of the story and that is what brought us here: the truth. So get the truth, my dear friend, so the punishment is worth it. Otherwise I will chase you forever" I smiled and moved closer to him.

"I love you. You're the best friend I could have asked"

"I love you too but it's getting dark and I'm tired" I laughed "let's go"

The way back to the hotel was silent. I thought about what Alex had said and maybe he was right, maybe and just maybe he had very good reasons to do what he did. My cell phone started to vibrate suddenly in my pocket.

"Hi, Dad!"

"Hello my dear" He said solemnly so I just laughed "How's everything?"

"Everything is ok, Dad. I talk to Mom and I… god! Why did you let me be so harsh knowing that I had no reason to blame her?" I asked him

"Because you're like a mule, you were convinced you were right and nothing I had said would have changed your opinion"

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Daddy, I don't want to be impolite but why are you calling me so late?"

"Well. Your mother isn't answering my phone calls so I thought you may know were she was"

"Uh, no idea. But she turned off her phone?" I asked confused.

"Yes, she did"

"I'm sorry, Dad, I don't know"

"Ok, don't worry but if you see her tell her to call me. I love you"

"Love you too" I closed my phone and Alex looked at me surprised.

"Your mom has disappeared?"

"Something like it"

"What a family!"

We arrived to the hotel really quick but Dec and the boys were already there so I did just what I had planned.

"Dec, can I talk to you?" My brother just nodded as he followed me to the corridor. We sat against the wall "Declan, if your mother came back… would you like to talk to her?"

"I think… I think I would do it. I mean, don't take me badly, you know I love Brooke and I really appreciate everything she had done for me but my mother is my mother and, you know, I would like to know what she likes and what she dislikes or if I look like her. Dad never talks about her"

"And you never ask"

"I never had the need. I had Brooke, she's my mom but that doesn't take the fact that I would like to meet her" I smiled sadly at my brother. We could not share a drop of blood but he and I were alike. So different yet so similar. "But I don't have to worry about that because she's not coming back and I'm not going to look for her. There are things that are better the way they are, hide"

"Do you think I should meet him?"

"I know you, you don't want to look back in twenty years and regret you haven't done something you could have" I smiled

"People say I'm a spoiled brat but you know it is your fault" He laughed

"Is not ours! You're the only girl, we had to protect you and pamper you" He said imitating Dad.

"Say who?"

"Don't know" We both laughed "Dad always said that _we_ had to take care of _you_. I guess he didn't knew _you_ were the one that planned all the pranks. Do you remember that time you convinced us to hide his car's keys inside the washing machine? I thought he was going to have a heart attack or something! "

"Silly Daddy" I said childishly and started laughing as I remembered that prank. My normal life seemed so far... but then I saw Mom coming. Anxious and confused, her eyes red. I looked at Dec and I saw the same worried expression I probably had.

* * *

**Sorry! I have been very busy. I'm going to NYC in a month to learn English so you can understand me lol so I have a summer job that takes most of my time now. This is a link chapter to Luke's story. Allie is really confused and she is very… she can fall to pieces very fast but the boys, they are there so she doesn't lose her way. I apologize for my English again. It is quite frustrating to want to say something and don't know why but I hope you can understand. That's all, thanks for the reviews and the support. Next chapter must be here next week. Take care you all and have a nice holiday. **


	9. And so she cried

**And so... she cried**

Brooke stayed on the door looking at the frozen Lucas Scott. She hadn't felt so awkward in a while, but this was Lucas she was in front of. When she realized he wasn't going to say anything else, she spoke:

"The first time I see you in eighteen years and you are in a hospital bed again" She shook her head trying to hide the effort that talking to him meant to her, so she smiled when he chuckled.

"Oh, you know… I like hospital beds, they are quite comfortable. Brooke, you know you can come closer. I'm not going to bite you" It was just that when she realized she was still holding the door. She smiled even though she was still unsure about coming closer. Brooke would never ever admit it to anyone but she was almost sure the fact she didn't feel anything for Lucas was caused by the long time she hadn't seem him and now, there, with him… she was scared again. Slowly she sat on a chair near him but still close to the door.

"So… what's up with your life?" She looked at Lucas confused. She came home after almost nineteen years because their daughter wanted to meet him and she knew he was aware and all he said was _that_? She opened and closed her mouth a couple times until she was sure she wasn't going to regret was she was going to tell him.

"Don't play the fool, Lucas" Brooke told him seriously as she looked at the floor. She couldn't look at him without feeling guilty or scared. When Lucas was about to say something her phone starter ringing in her purse but she didn't move.

"Brooke, are you going to answer that call?" She opened the purse and took the phone; she read Patrick's name and the guilty sharp hit her harder.

"No, it can wait" She said turning off her phone.

Silence fell over them again, both waiting the other to start the conversation or the accusations. Brooke was fighting her demons and her fears. She had loved him so much, it had took her so much to get over him but made her insecure, fragile, he had hurt her so many time in so many ways that she was scared about how this was going to end because it wasn't just her anymore. It was her, her kids and her Patrick. But, her husband was the last thing she wanted to think about right now, she couldn't help but feel she was betraying him because she was opening Pandora's Box. And with her and Lucas, you never knew what could happen.

"You never let me explain you" She heard Lucas' low voice and confused turned to him "What had happened after you went to New York"

"You never explained me" She simply said.

"You left"

"You knew were I was" She looked away "Where _we_ were"

"I never meant to hurt you, Brooke. Either of you" She could almost feel the pain in his voice but she had so many feelings hid in the deeper of her heart…

"I heard that before. You always do the same. Hurt me, then apologize, I'm mad at you for a while, you convince me with your sensible speeches and we start over again. I thought it was a High School thing but I guess I was wrong" She said reproachfully "Why should I believe you this time?"

"Because it is the truth" She looked at her lap.

"I waited for you, I waiter for you to come after us telling me that everything was going to be ok, that you were actually going to have a closure with Peyton" Brooke eyes were glassy, she couldn't understand how she could still see through the tears "Instead you married her"

"She needed me" He said lamely and Brooke looked at him with her anger visible.

"She _needed_ you? I remember you _I_ was the one that was fucking pregnant with your child! I was the one was that had lost Angie and that had suffered a robbery. _I_ was the one that _needed_ you, but you were never there"

"I… I'm sorry"

"The same as always" Brooke was conscious that if their conversation kept going this way they weren't going to resolve anything, but the pain she felt was more powerful. Her feelings marred her reason.

"Brooke" Lucas started "I'm sorry about the way things happened but could you please sit and listen to me?" She looked confused, she didn't remember when she had got up but she sat again. She needed to do this.

"You left to New York the morning after, I thought you regretted it"

"No, I was ashamed, it's different. I didn't regret what happened but… god, Lucas, I blamed Peyton and you for cheating on me and that is what we did to her. I needed time"

"How I was supposed to know that?" Brooke just shrugged.

"I don't know, I tried to don't think about you while I was there but when I knew it… it was impossible"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"By phone?" She shook her head "No, I was too excited; I wanted to see your face, to show you the sonogram"

"Peyton came back when you were away. Her child wasn't mine" He said as if that could feel anything.

"I know. Now. Jamie told me. I though you had chosen her and her child, I thought…" She couldn't hold it anymore and started crying "I thought you didn't love us or wanted us but I waited for you anyway" Lucas moved and tried to hug her but Brooke was faster and moved away.

"You both were better without me"

"Who the hell do you think you are to decide something like that?" Lucas remained in silence and Brooke understood this was as difficult to him as it was to her.

"I would have hurt you again, sooner or later, you know it's true" She looked at him and all she could see was a man tortured by his regrets.

"We could have made it work" She found herself saying and the image of her family came to her mind "But, it's too late now"

"You deserved better than me, you are great, Brooke. Strong. Beautiful. Smart. Nice. Amusing. You could lit up the world" She opened her mouth to say something but he cut her "You would have left it for me, your company, your future. You would have got bored her, stuck in a little city" She cut him this time.

"Wow, Broody, you had a lot of time to think about this" Brooke laughed and so did he.

"You have all, Brooke" She just smiled. How could she tell him there was a little, a tiny space in her heart void that cried for him from time to time?

"Yes, I do"

"I have read your husband is a good person" Guilt.

"Yes, he is. He's a good doctor and an awesome dad. I'm lucky to have him" Lucas nodded and looked at the window.

"Do you love him?"

"Why do you care?"

"Love is something greater than anyone, anyone can't fight love"

"Love is only a feeling"

"So you don't" He said sounding happier than he had done during the whole conversation.

"I do, Lucas. I really do. It's just that you need more than love to sustain a marriage. Love is just a part of it, you need trust, respect, you need to talk a lot and, of course, you have to like the other person"

"What we did lack?" Brooke seemed confused. Was Lucas trying to tell her something or he was just in a 'let's ask stupid questions to Brooke' moment?

"We always had a shortage of trust and maybe communication. We had love and passion, nobody can deny that" They burst out laughing at the same time.

"How is she?" He asked suddenly still smiling.

"You mean…" He nodded before she could even ask.

"She's… confused and somewhat dazed. She needs to hear your point of view, Lucas. She _needs_ too know that you didn't let us go because you didn't love her but because you were stupid enough to think she wasn't going to need you" He rolled his eyes and she chuckled.

"I have seen some pictures of her, in magazines. She doesn't looks like you at all" He said smiling proudly "It has been some years since I last saw a photograph of her but I can tell"

"Yes, that's true. Damn Scott strong genes!" They both laughed again "She's beautiful though" The silent was so intense that Brooke felt the need to break it "But, what did you expect? She's my daughter!"

"Did she know about me?"

"No, not until two weeks ago" She smiled sadly "I thought it was going to hurt less if she didn't know. I didn't take into account that she would feel in two weeks what she hadn't felt in eighteen years. For a while I thought I had lost her"

"Why?"

"The way she looked at me" Brooke simply answered "Patrick handled it better than me, he talked to her and she understood"

"They seem close"

"She's close to everyone in the family"

"Wonder who she inherited that from" Lucas mocked at her and she felt relived that he seemed comfortable talking about Allie. "But, it's true. She's close to him. I don't know why" She shrugged "Since the day she was born she had him wrapped around her little finger and she's quite astute, she takes advantage of being their only daughter and sister do make them do anything. My poor boys!" Brooke laughed hard and Lucas stared at her.

"You seem happy"

"I am. I have the job and the big family I dreamt. And I'm healthy…"

"Is she? I mean… she doesn't have HCM, right?" The genuine concern in his voice made Brooke tremble.

"She's healthy. All she has is migraines and a bag full of sarcasm"

"Good, good" Afraid of the next question about her private life, Brooke changed subject.

"I met your son... Michael. He seems to be a good kid, he seems quiet"

"He is. Both. I have tried to keep him away from my problems with Peyton"

"That's good" Brooke didn't want to talk about Peyton, not yet.

"Allie and him seem to get along pretty well" Lucas smiled.

"I'm sure" He hesitated for a minute but then asked "why did you call her Allie?"

"It's Allegra, actually. I didn't choose the name. I wanted to name her Lila or Maya, something modern, you know. But, Patrick said she needed a happy name, something that was sweet and reminded me that now, well, then I had a reason to fight anything. He said Allegra was a good choice, it means cheerful" And in a lower voice she added "It reminded me of you and I thought it was a good idea" He nodded sadly, trapped on his own memories "Her middle name is for your mom" Lucas looked at her confused "Rose. Roe with an s to made it sweeter. Allegra Rose Bentley. It sounded nice" She looked at him just to find him brooding again so she smiled.

"Why Bentley?"

"Patrick asked me to. He was always with me, I trusted him and I didn't want my daughter to grow up without a…" She was about to say father but she felt incredibly uncomfortable talking about Patrick to Lucas "paternal figure. He loved me then and I knew he wasn't going to leave us, he found time to me even though he was studying medicine and he had a baby. He… I just…" She sighted "He gave me all I needed: trust, love, comfort so I accepted it"

"I thought you were in love"

"That came a couple years after. I told you I waited for you"

"I think we lacked communication more than anything" He said half joking

"Probably"

"I'm sorry, Brooke. I'm sorry I wasn't there but I really thought you didn't need me. You are so strong. I thought you would be better without me"

"It's not to me to who you have to apologize"

"I know" Nobody said anything, they both immerse on their own thoughts. Brooke jumped when Lucas talked again "I saw her once. I mean, in person" She just looked at him confused so he continued "I went with Nate to New York. She was four, I… I saw her in a book shop buying 'Just so stories'. You were there too" Brooke realized what he was talking about, it was pretty obvious he had problems to say it all at once "You were pregnant"

"Alfie" She smiled "It was Christmas and he was born on May. He's my third son, the fourth child" Lucas just nodded

"She seemed so… confident, she was so beautiful"

"She's pretty smart" She inhaled deeply aware of the hurt in Lucas eyes every time she said 'Patrick' and 'Allie' in the same sentence "Patrick taught her to read that year. She is confident indeed, he (and I, obviously) didn't want her to be weak or insecure. We raised her, and her brothers, telling them that we would love them no matter what. She grew up safe, protected, loved"

"Then it was worth it" He mumbled and Brooke felt angry again.

"_You _could have done the same" She waited for an answer but he didn't say anything, he just looked at her "You talked to her?" Lucas smiled a true sincere smile.

"Yes, she said 'You're never too young or too old. You just are' I thought it was incredibly wise" Brooke started laughing.

"She fooled you!" Brooke had problems breathing because of the laughing "She was afraid of swimming, Patrick insisted the kids needed to learnt to swim while they were little but Allie was scared of the sea so she made up an story about a sea dragon and a princess and she told us"

"A story?"

"She likes book. I wonder why! She implied she was too little to swim on the sea so Patrick told her that. The following spring, when she was five, we went to a beach house. She cried a lot trough. I wasn't there all the time because Alfie was just a newborn but she spent more than half the week hugged to Patrick crying on his neck while encouraged her. But she learnt. She didn't give up, we were so proud" Brooke looked at Lucas but he seemed so concentrated that she wondered if he had heard the story.

"I have a book shop, did you knew that?" He asked but before she could ask what had that to do with her or her daughter, the nurse came to the room.

"Hi, sorry ma'am but you have to leave. Visitors hours are over"

"Oh, ok. I see ya later, Broody" He just smiled as she left the room.

* * *

Outside that hospital room was where Brooke really became aware of what Lucas' confessions implied. He loved her, he loved their child but he was so damn idiot to think they didn't need him. And so, seated on some hospital's stairs, she cried for her and for Lucas, for their child, for her insecurities that didn't let her listen to him back then, for his stubbornness thinking they were better without him, she cried for Patrick, because he loved her but she always felt his love wasn't comparable to hers, she cried for her children, for the past _and_ the future but mostly she cried for that future that was never going to be.

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**A quick update for your thoughts ****LOL. Thanks a lot for the reviews, you are great! **


	10. Something to fight for

**Disclaimer: I don't own OTH, otherwise Brucas would have been together for a long time.**

* * *

**Something to fight for**

Lucas Scott wasn't surprised when the following morning either Haley or Michael came to pick him up. Last night memories chased him and he had barely slept. Slowly he came out from the bathroom, full dressed, and walked towards the window. As he looked outside he felt more afraid than ever. He had to face the consequences of his acts, of his mistakes. There wasn't turning back and even if he wished this was a dream, it was real… Brooke and their daughter were there, waiting for him as they had been for the last eighteen years.

"Someone told me you needed a ride" He smiled at the sound of June's voice that took his mind off his thoughts.

"Yeah, I guess I can't say this is something I couldn't have expected" But she didn't answer him, she just hugged him.

"I don't want to be one of those employees that hate their boss so, when you are ready, I would appreciate if you tell me" He looked at her confused, tell her about what? "Tell me about what the hell is going on…"

"Oh, that… uhm, sure" Said Lucas although he wasn't very convinced.

"You seem… out. Are you ok?" She asked concerned.

"I'm ok, it just that… have you ever felt that you could have had what you wanted but realized too late?"

"Not that I know. You feel like that?" Lucas just nodded as June sighted "You complicated everything a lot" Lucas smiled as started walking towards the lift.

"I mean it. Michael told me your mom is arriving tonight and your wife, in two days" She yelled running behind him.

"What?" Oh god He was dead man.

-OTH-

The house was the same as always, not that anything was going to change in a day but he had expected Michael to be there at least. As he walked around the house, it felt emptier than ever and he felt that he didn't belong there. Besides Michael, that house represented a life that was lived just because he had too, there people didn't smile they just cracked smiles. Lucas saw the manuscript of his newest novel, it all seemed so pointless, his entire life; he didn't wrote what he felt anymore, he wrote fantasies about an imaginary life, about people finding their love even in the end, he wrote to heal his soul and his heart.

"What are you hiding from?" Asked June, who as followed into his study, with an intense expression.

"I'm afraid to live again, to believe again" He said simply "I don't know what I have become, I wasn't like this. I… I have become my father or worse"

"You aren't bad, Luke"

"She probably hates me" June looked at him confused.

"You are talking about the mother or the daughter?"

"My daughter" He said and June smiled. "What?"

"That's a big step. You've accepted you have a daughter" Lucas rolled his eyes.

"Why you don't hate me? Not that I'm complaining, I'm just curious"

"She had had to mean a lot to you to let her go like that, you're eyes are brighter when you mention her" June said and Lucas wondered again if she meant Allie or Brooke.

"I didn't mean this to happen. It was a mistake. It was impulsive, I was absolutely sure it was the best and then, when I realized, it was too late. The easiest thing, go there and… just ask for forgiveness, it was so hard. You can't imagine how many times I planned to go to NY and see my daughter and bring Michael with me"

"Why didn't you do it?"

"I don't know. I let it go thinking it was the best, if nobody knew nobody was hurt. But Nate blamed me and accused me to be just like Dan" June just shrugged.

"How did you end up with Peyton?"

"She was there, she needed me"

"You're stupid, boss. You know that, right? I hope you learnt your lesson. The girl for you wasn't the damsel in distress (she needed a police or fireman husband)" Lucas laughed hard at June's comment "The girl for you was the one that needed you because she loved you not the one that loved you because she needed you" Lucas bowed his head.

"My uncle told me something like that once" He read the curiosity in his employee's eyes "He told me to look into my heart, to open my eyes to find what I loved. But I was scared of doing that" June looked at him waiting for a further explanation "She was strong and brave"

"You thought she didn't need you" She murmured.

"I thought I had nothing to give to her but heartaches" Lucas continued.

"But she loved you" June complained.

"And I love her!" Lucas quickly raised his head realizing what he had just said to see June smiling at him.

"Maybe it's too late to have her but you still have your daughter, although I think you need to act soon"

"Remember me to give you a pay rise this month" He said as he walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To find my child" He yelled from outside.

"Coming with you! I wouldn't miss that"

-OTH-

Lucas and June were exhausted, they had gone to Haley's house, Brooke's hotel and almost every restaurant in the centre of Tree Hill and they still hadn't found them.

"I still don't understand a lot of things and I think you are really stupid but I think you really love them"

"Ok, June. There's a deal. You shut up and when this is resolved, if I'm still alive, I will tell you everything" June smirked at him.

"A detailed version?"

"Of course" He said, by now Lucas would have done anything just to make her stop analysing the situation.

"Deal"

"Hey, coach!" Tom Fuller, his star, greeted him.

"Hi, Tom" Lucas said politely wanting to cut off the conversation before it was too late. He really needed to find them.

"How are you? Michael told me you had been in the hospital"

"I'm ok, really" Tom smiled and added

"Good then. The boys were worried"

"Tom, I appreciate your concern but I'm in a hurry"

"Are you looking for someone?" the boy asked obliviously.

"Yes, my son"

"Oh, He's on the Rivercourt with your brother's family and another woman with a lot of kids" June looked at him and both started running

"Thanks, Tom" He yelled when they reached the next crossing but he wasn't sure the boy would hear him.

-OTH-

The way to Rivercourt had never been this long to Lucas. He thought he had been running for hours when he arrived to the crossing just before the court. His heart beat hard against his chest but he wasn't sure about the cause, maybe it was because of the running or maybe because he was going to meet her. This wasn't the way he had dreamt to see his daughter for the first time but that… it just didn't mattered right now. Slowly, with June by his side, he crossed but the court was empty, nobody was there. Jude sighted in disbelieve. He was so stuck on his thoughts, thinking about places they could have gone, that he didn't see the ball coming to his face. June was faster than him and pushed him away from the ball's trajectory. Soon, a boy came running. Hazel eyes, dimpled smile. Brooke's son.

"Sorry about that. I'm not very good playing _this_" he said looking disgusted to the ball.

"No problem. Who are you? I had never seen you before and I know almost every kid in town" June said.

"I'm not from here. I just came to get my sister" Lucas was speechless, what was he supposed to say?

"So you're Brooke Davis' son?" June asked to boy and then smirked to a frozen Lucas.

"Yes, I'm Caiden James Bentley"

"Nice to meet you, Caiden James Bentley. I'm June Reed, no middle name and this is Lucas _Eugene _Scott" The boy dropped the ball and observed him inquisitively.

"She really looks like you" Lucas smiled; he had expected the boy to cry or yell not a comment so… nice "Do you want to join us for dinner? We are there" Caiden pointed to the trees behind the court. That was the reason they hadn't found them.

"Sure" June said dragging Lucas off with her.

The first time he had saw Michael, so little and defenceless, Lucas was overwhelmed by tenderness and a strong need to protect him. But all that was incomparable to what he was feeling in that moment. About ten metres beyond, Brooke was hugging Allie from behind as they watched the boys play, Haley was sitting on the ground with a blonde baby. He stood still and both June and Caiden stopped too. He couldn't take his eyes off her; there was his daughter, just a few meters away from him. She wasn't beautiful in the same way Brooke was but there was something in her that maker her stand out from the rest. She was the same height that Brooke although she was probably taller because, unlike her mother, she wasn't wearing heels. She looked so fragile and vulnerable with her light blond long hair, her porcelain skin and her skinny frame but Lucas realized she wasn't in the very same moment she opened her eyes and looked directly to him with her pale green orbs. Coldness. She smirked at him and he frozed.

"Look, Kai has done his good deed for the day. He brought us a fool"

"Allegra!" Brooke voice broke the silence they had plunged into when they saw Lucas. "Apologize"

"_I_ have nothing to apologize for, Mom" Allie said with a tender voice that didn't match her mischievous grin "_I_ haven't abandoned anyone" Dead silence, not even June talked. Tension was evident. The children looked at him, Haley and Nathan too but Brooke was looking to the ground. It wasn't that Lucas had thought it was going to be easy but he had never expected his daughter to be so… harsh. Suddenly, a voice came from behind Brooke and a boy appeared in front of him.

"You must be Lucas Scott, nice to meet you, Sir" The blond boy held out his hand to him avoiding Allie's sceptical and hurt look "I'm Alexander Kushner. I have heard a lot of things about you lately. I was really looking forward to meet you" He said and Brooke let out a relieved sight.

"Hi" was all Lucas could say.

"You didn't tell me he had _such _a vast vocabulary" Allie said looking to Michael as she smirked again. His son just smiled complacent at her but he frowned.

"Can I talk to you for a second, Dad?"

Before Lucas could answer, Michael had brought him back to the court.

"What are you doing _here_?"

"I… I just…"

"Don't do this" The sad expression on his son's face worried him

"Do what?"

"Ask her to go. She's not like that, she's just mad" Michael smiled "Well, that's an understatement"

"I don't want her to leave!" His son looked at him surprised "I just wanted to see her and I was looking for you too" Michael nodded and then cracked up.

"What…?"

"She called you a fool!"

"Michael!"

"Sorry" He was serious again. The blond boy that had greeted him before arrived where Lucas was with his son.

"Hi, Sir"

"Call me Lucas"

"I will go… there, they are… I… my lunch" Michael said and left quickly.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Allie's best friend" Lucas raised his eyebrow "since pre-school" He just nodded not wanting the boy to be more nervous "I just wanted you to know that she's not like that. Well, she can seem very aloof and be somewhat unpleasant but once you get to know her, she's not like that"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"She has to go through this and can't do it if you leave her because of the way she is treating you…"

"Why does everyone keep thinking I'm going?" It was a rhetorical question but the boy answered.

"We-eell. It wouldn't be the first time" Lucas glared at the boy and nodded, his sincerity taking him aback. "You can't imagine how the last weeks have been. She needs someone to blame, it makes it easier"

"I'm the one to blame, right?"

"It's pretty obvious" the boy laughed "She's like disappointed with life and not very pleased with the fact that past is being dragged out. You and Mrs D. have a lot to talk about yet. She doesn't like that either"

"Why not?"

"She doesn't trust you" Alex answered as if it was obvious

"What can I do?"

"Don't know. Try crawling and begging" The boy laughed hard at Lucas worried face.

"Am I going to get you into trouble if I ask you to walk with me?"

"Nah, I can handle her"

"Good" Lucas liked the boy. Alexander seemed genuinely worried about his daughter and it was obvious that he appreciated her. "So, tell me, Alexander…"

"Call me Alex"

"Ok, Alex… you seem to know my daughter pretty well, can you tell me something, _anything _about her?" The boy looked at him surprised.

"Well, she's shy, really really shy. That's why she may seem aloof, you know" Lucas nodded "She loves her books more than anything" Alex rolled his eyes and laughed "I can bet that, in case of fire, the first thing she would save would be her books and CDs"

"She likes music?" Asked Lucas, willing to know something about that stranger that happened to be his daughter. He wanted to be prepared before facing her again.

"Yes, she does. But she likes this old music her dad… I mean, her… you know, and Mr. B" Lucas nodded calming down the boy "I'm sorry, I'm used to call him her dad. Anyway, she listens the same music he does. Their favourite music band is The Clash" Alex rolled his eyes as if liking that band was the worse thing you could do. "She is like her mom, thought" Lucas' attention was caught "She can see people beyond their appearance, she see _who_ they are not _what_. That's not very normal in our world" Lucas looked at him confused "Rich people. I'm sure you have met her grandmother, Mrs. Davis" The older man nodded smiling. Victoria Davis was in his Must-avoid list "She's an idealist. She gets angry often because she thinks the world is losing its way" The more he heard, the more curious Lucas was. Alex talked about his daughter with such an intensity that he could almost imagine her doing that, he had to fight the urge of going back "She likes to have the control of, pretty much, everything not because she's a controller but because she's kind of insecure, she hides it pretty well thought. Don't you find her intimidating?" The boy didn't wait him to answer "She's inspiring, that kind of person you need to protect because you know they are unique and she's funny, kind of, actually she's just funny if you are able to understand her logic which is pretty weird" Lucas laughed.

"She looks like me but she seems to have a lot of Brooke too"

"I don't know. But I can assure you she loves her family as much as her mom; they would do anything for them. They are close" Alex nodded to himself as they turned to go back to the court "Oh, and she can talk about anything, she's a fucking encyclopedia with legs" Lucas raised his eyebrow again looking at the boy "I mean, sh-she... is pretty smart and..., you know, all that" The arrived to the court "Please?" Asked the boy and Lucas smiled at him, he wasn't going anywhere. He could make a mistake once but not twice and he was determined to have a long (and true-hearted) conversation with Brooke and to establish a relation between him and the unpredictable, fascinating and annoyed Allegra. Life was beginning again, he had something to live for and this time nothing was going to stop him, not even himself.

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**Wow, Lucas is finally making out his mind! Lol I'm not very satisfied with the chapter, I think it's short and kind of boring, but Lucas needed to open his eyes. I'm sorry, guys I'm not saying anything interesting but it's almost 1am and I have been up for like twenty hours… I expect to have a new chapter this weekend or next week at the latest. Again, I apologize for my English, I'm pretty tired so I'm sure there are a lot of mistakes lol. Thanks a lot for your reviews cutiekesi, othfan326 and TeamSophia. Have a good week. **


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